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CODE    OF    DIRECTIONS 


FOE  ESCAPING  FROM  THE  PRIMAL  CURSE. 


i  /  EDITED  BT 

Editor  of  the  "  Herald  of  Health." 


M?"  L.    HOLBROOK:,     M.D., 


'Neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain,  for  the  former  things  are 
passed  away."— Rev.  xxi,  4. 


FIFTEENTH  THOUSAND. 

NEW  YORK: 

M.    L.    HOLBROOK,    PUBLISHER, 
1896. 


according  to  Act  of  Concnuui.   In  tlM  je*»  ItH,  fe9 

M.  L.  HOLBROOK.  M  D., 

IB  tfe»  Office  of  UM  Librarian  of  CoogreM,  at 


PREFACE, 


ORIGINALITY  has  not  been  soughl  m  this  little 
irork.  All  that  has  been  attempted  is,  to  set  forth 
briefly  and  clearly  the  nature  and  importance  of 
childbearing,  the  slightness  of  its  real  dangers,  and 
the  best  methods  of  alleviating  its  discomforts  and 
sufferings. 

The  subject  is  itself  extensive,  and  an  immense 
range  of  related  topics  have  a  direct  and  important 
bearing  on  it.  The  difficulty  has  accordingly  been 
not  to  find  what  to  say,  but  to  decide  what  to 
omit. 

It  is  believed  that  a  healthful  regimen  has  been 
described;  a  constructive,  preparatory,  and  pre- 
ventive training,  rather  than  a  course  of  remedies, 
medications,  and  drugs.  The  cooling,  soothing, 
and  nutritious  Fruit  Diet  system  is  the  central 
-dea  of  the  book,  and  it  is  believed  that  every 


4  PREFACE. 

recommendation  in  it  is  in  haimony  with  that 
system. 

Among  the  authorities  who  have  been  cor  suited 
and  quoted  or  used,  are  the  following:  Bull, 
Dewees,  Duncan,  Gleason,  Lozier,  Montgomery, 
Napheya,  Pendieton,  Shew,  Siorer,  Tilt,  and 
Verdi. 


OO:N  TEXTS. 


CHAPTER  I.  PA« 

HEALTHFULNESS  OP  CHILDBEARING 7 

CHAPTER  II. 

DANGER  OF  PREVENTIONS. — CELIBACY  BY  THE  DIS- 
EASED     14 

CHAPTER  III. 
OPINIONS  ON  PAINLESS  PARTURITION. — CASES 21 

CHAPTER  IV. 
PREPARATIONS  FOR  MOTHERHOOD 27 

CHAPTER  V. 
EXERCISE  AND  OCCUPATION  DURING  GESTATION.....    37 

CHAPTER  VI. 
FHE  BATH;  ESPECIALLY  THE  SITZ-BATH. . . < 44 

CHAPTER  VII. 
PAINLESS   PARTURITION  FROM  FRUIT  DIET. — FOOD 

GENERALLY..,     .    49 


CHAPTER  VIIL 
THK   MIND   DURING   PREGNANCY.  —  "  LON<  JNGS." — 

"  MOTHER'S  MARKS" 66 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  AILMENTS  OF  PREGNANCY  AND  THEIR  TREAT- 
MENT      79 

CHAPTER  X. 
ANAESTHETICS  DURING  LABOR. — FEMALE  PHYSICIANS.    91 

SUMMARY 98 


APPENDIX. 

THE  HUSBAND'S  DUTY — BEST  AGE  FOR  PROCREA- 
TION— SHALL  SICKLY  PEOPLE  RAISE  CHILDREN  ? 
—  SMALL  FAMILIES  —  IMPORTANCE  OF  PHYSIO- 
LOGICAL ADAPTATION—  CELIBACY  —  TOBACCO 
AND  ALCOHOL  —  DETERMINING  THE  SEX  OF 
CHILDREN — FATHER'S  vs.  MOTHER'S  INFLUENCE 
— SHALL  PREGNANT  WOMEN  WORK?— INTEL- 
LECTUAL ACTIVITY  AND  PARENTAGE  —  MBS. 
STANTON'S  TESTIMONY 99  118 


PARTURITION    WITHOUT    PAIN, 


CHAPTER  I. 

HEALTHFULNESS   OF   CHILD-BEARING. 

CHILDREN  are  a  good  and  not  an  evil.  A  human 
being  who  is  not  to  some  extent  fond  of  children, 
who  does  not  to  some  extent  desire  to  have  chil- 
dren, is  defective — maimed;  just  as  a  person  is 
who  is  unable  to  take  pleasure  in  music,  or  who  is 
incapable  of  distinguishing  between  right  and 
wrong,  or  who  cannot  feel  sympathy  with  the 
pleasure  or  pain  of  other  people. 

Accordingly,  the  cases  of  men,  and  still  more  of 
women,  who  do  not  desire  children,  are  compara- 
tively few,  and  are  exceptions.  They  have  always 
been,  and  still  are,  recognized  as  unfortunate  in- 
stances  of  sickly  or  deformed  natural  constitution, 
or  of  the  harmful  influence  of  unhealthy  social 
conditions. 

The  whole  range  of  history,  the  whole  range  of 
to-day^  unperverted  human  nature,  show  a  pro 


PARTURITION    WITHOUT    PAIN. 

found  love  for  offspring  in  the  human  race.  A 
long  series  of  cases  might  be  cited,  it  is  true,  where 
infanticide  has  been  practised.  Yet  the  number, 
though  great  in  itself,  shrinks  out  of  sight  in  com- 
parison with  the  number  of  cases  where  it  has  not 
been  practised.  And,  furthermore,  it  would  be 
easy  to  show  that  this  seeming  ferocity  is  very 
often  the  perverted  or  rather  inverted  manifesta- 
tion of  the  natural  affection  itself.  That  is,  for 
^nstance,  vast  numbers  of  the  infanticides  prac- 
tised by  heathens  upon  their  female  children  are 
perpetrated  on  the  theory — either  conscious  or  im 
plied — that  it  is  a  kindness  to  put  the  little 
unfortunate  things  quickly  out  of  a  world  where 
they  have  only  unhappiness  and  servitude  to  ex- 
pect. 

Except  such  violations  of  natural  law  as  this,  it 
will  be  found  that  no  more  powerful  motives,  un- 
less it  be  the  instinct  of  preserving  one's  own  life, 
shape  the  lives  and  govern  the  conduct  of  human 
beings  than  those  which  impel  us  to  have  children. 
Dr.  S.  O.  Howe,  the  eminent  nhysician  and  philan- 
thropist, places  but  one  motive  above  that  of  de- 
sire for  reproducing  our  species  in  point  of  powei 
over  human  beings  He  says,  in  a  discussion  upon 
the  treatment  of  feminine  wrong-doers :  "  As  with 
the  FIRST  great  instinct  of  nature — to  support  and 
prolong  our  individual  life  at  whatever  cost  to  oth- 
ers,— even  so  with  the  SECOND,  which  leads  us  to 


HEA.LTHFULNESS    OF    OHILTV-iiEAIUNG.  S 

renew  and  extend  our  existence  by  transmittihg  it 
to  others." 

The  Bible,  unerringly  true  in  its  psychology,  is 
full  of  this  motive.  It  may  even  be  said  that  the 
powerful  protection  of  this  profound  instinct  was 
used  by  the  Almighty  as  the  impregnable  hiding- 
place  in  which  the  plan  of  human  redemption  waa 
slowly  evolved  and  human  thought  habituated  to 
it.  Every  thoughtful  student  of  Bible  psychology 
will  perceive  that  the  two  inseparable  motives — 
love  of  offspring,  and  hope  of  motherhood  of  the 
Messiah — lay  in  the  very  heart  of  hearts  of  the 
Jewish  national  life. 

But  the  point  needs  no  argument.  Few  indeed 
are  those  who  will  seriously  deny  that  children  are 
a  source  of  happiness.  Helpless  as  an  infant  is, 
troublesome  as  are  the  fantastic  tricks  and  naugh- 
tinesses of  childhood,  painful  as  are  parental  anxi- 
eties over  the  critical  eras  of  youth, — in  spite  of 
all,  a  home  without  children  is  inexpressibly 
dreary;  a  heart  without  children  is  sad  and  lone- 
some beyond  expression ;  a  life  without  children  ia 
felt  by  one  of  the  deepest  of  instincts  to  be  an  imper- 
fect life,  shorn  of  one  of  the  broadest  and  most 
\ital  and  vivid  portions  of  emotion  and  enjoyment. 

The  money  value  of  a  child  has  been  calculated 
b  v  one  philosophical  observer.  He  conclude.?,  in  a 
manner  that  reminds  one  somewhat  of  a  slave- 
trader's  computations,  that  on  an  average,  a  healthy 


10  PARTURITION    WITHOUT   PAI2T 

boy,  fifteen  years  old,  is  equivalent  to  fifteen  him 
dred  dollars  cash.  This  is  no  doubt  a  sum  not  to 
be  despised.  But  it  becomes  invisible  when  we 
compare  it  with  an  estimate  of  the  affectional,  so- 
cial, and  ethical  value  of  children.  The  exercise 
of  so  much  patience,  forbearance,  kindness,  and 
love,  as  their  training  requires,  reacts  with  infinite 
power  upon  the  heart  of  the  parent.  Constant 
thoughtfulness,  prudence,  foresight,  and  contri- 
vance are  indispensable  in  managing  them;  and 
this  discipline  in  like  manner  reacts  upon  the  char- 
acter of  the  manager.  The  future  of  children  is 
one  of  the  most  powerful  considerations  in  restrain- 
ing parents  from  carelessness  or  indiscretion  in 
economical  matters,  in  their  ordinary  walk  and 
conversation,  in  the  whole  conduct  of  life.  Many 
a  man  or  woman  has  been  held  back  from  folly  or 
from  shame  by  the  recollection  of  what  the  chil- 
dren would  know  of  it,  or  would  hear  of  it. 

In  truth,  the  whole  fabric  of  society  is  keyed 
upon  these  feeblest  and  most  imperfect  of  its  mem- 
bers. Remove  their  influences,  and  the  chief  bond 
of  matrimony  disappears ;  and  with  it  disappear 
the  home,  the  family,  and  a  whole  vast  circle  of 
forces  indispensable  to  individual  self-control,  to 
general  morality,  to  the  very  existence  of  society 
and  of  nations.  The  indi  ridual,  thus  loosed,  stands 
without  ties  to  any  of  his  kind,  without  recollec- 
tions of  ancestors,  responsibilities  to  his  fellows,  or 


IIEALTHFULNESS    OF    CHILD-BEAKiA'G.  11 

expectations  toward  a  future  generation.  Our  civil- 
ized and  organized  frame  of  society,  a  body  in- 
stinct with  healthy  life,  would  drop  at  once  into  a 
mere  collection  of  ultimate  atoms,  by  putrid  de- 
composition. 

Truths  inosculate.  It  is  in  accordance  with 
what  has  been  said  of  the  inestimable  importance 
of  children  in  society  and  as  instruments  for  the 
development  of  character,  that  the  office  of  bear- 
ing children  should  be  not  merely  a  natural  but  a 
positively  healthful  office. 

As  in  all  other  respects  whatever,  a  compliance 
with  the  natural  laws  of  human  existence  in  this 
particular,  promotes  the  total  significance — i.  e., 
the  extent,  the  efficiency,  the  enjoyableness — of 
that  existence.  To  suppose  the  case  otherwise  is 
to  suppose  the  Creator  other  than  wise.  But  it  is 
an  old  paradox,  that  it  is  an  absurdity  which  ia 
the  "  thing  impossible  to  God." 

No  doubt  there  are  exceptions  to  the  rale.  But 
unless  there  are  special  reasons  to  the  contrary, 
married  persons  live  longer  than  unmarried ;  and 
as  a  general  rule  it  is  absolutely  true  that  long  life 
is  happy  life.  This  is  the  case  with  both  men  and 
women  ;  and  writers  on  longevity  accordingly  ha- 
bitually prescribe  matrimony  as  one  important 
means.  But  the  mother's  office  in  the  production 
of  offspring  is  beyond  all  comparison  a  greater  ele- 
nent  in  her  life — it  occupies  sin  infinitely  greatei 


12  PARTURITION    WITHOUT   1  A.IN. 

proportion  of  her  time,  her  head,  her  hoarfc,  aei 
physical  strength  and  vitality,  than  in  the  case  of 
the  father.  And  as  might  be  supposed,  the  influ« 
ence  of  marriage  and  child-bearing  upon  the  dura- 
tion of  women's  lives  is  decidedly  more  distinct  and 
easy  to  determine  than  the  influence  of  marriage 
and  paternity  upon  men. 

Among  the  numerous  elaborate  statistical  tables 
which  have  been  prepared  during  the  last  half  cen- 
tury, are  many  which  show  that  of  the  women  who 
die  between  the  ages  of  twenty  and  forty-five,  more 
are  single  than  married.  History  affords  no  in- 
stance of  a  single  woman  who  has  lived  to  a 
remarkably  great  age.  Of  women  who  commit 
suicide,  from  two-thirds  to  three-fourths  are  single. 
Of  women  confined  in  lunatic  asylums,  from  three- 
fourths  to  four-fifths  are  single.  There  is  a  start- 
ling list  of  diseases  which  either  actually  originate 
from  celibacy  strictly  observed  by  persons  possess- 
ing the  average  qualities  of  humanity,  or  which  are 
very  greatly  developed  and  intensified  by  it.  The 
proverbial  eccentricities  of  "old  maids"  are  no 
mere  imaginations.  They  are  neither  more  nor 
less  than  the  unavoidable  consequences  of  an  un- 
natural way  of  living.  So  immediate  and  impor- 
tant is  the  influence  of  celibacy  or  marriage  on 
health,  that  we  find  medical  authorities  of  the  high- 
est rank  treating  it  as  a  matter  of  hygienic  impor- 
tance as  obvious  and  as  weighty  as  food  or  exercise 


HEALTHFULNESS    OF    CHILD-BEAKING.  13 

or  climate.  Thus  the  great  French  physician 
Pinel  says  that  medicine  is  helpless  in  cases  where 
"  the  immutable  necessities  of  fecundity  and  repro- 
d  notion  are  perverted.  When  therefore  a  young 
marriageable  maiden  exhibits  symptoms  of  the 
approach  of  any  disease,  she  should  if  possible  be 
united  to  the  object  of  her  affections."  And  the 
physician  who  quotes  this  language  adds,  "this 
treatment  has  often  proved  very  successful  in  avert- 
ing diseases  that  would  have  rendered  her  life  one 
of  misery." 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  process  of  child-bearing 
is  essentially  necessary  to  the  physical  health  and 
long  life,  the  mental  happiness,  the  development 
of  the  affections  and  whole  character  of  women 
individually  (of  men  also),  and  to  the  very  exist- 
ence, not  only  of  the  human  race,  but  of  civilized 
society. 

9 


CHAPTER  II. 

DANGER  OF   PREVENTIONS. 

IN  like  manner  as  it  was  shown  that  thi  health- 
fulness  of  child-bearing  accords  with  natuial  indi- 
cations, so  does  the  doctrine  that  frustrations  of 
child-bearing  are  unhealthful,  accord  with  the  same 
indications.  The  invasion  and  devastation  of  a 
great  province  of  life  cannot  but  weaken  the  whole. 
The  function  of  child-bearing  diverts  to  its  pur- 
poses and  absorbs  in  its  offices  such  a  vast  share  of 
the  physical  frame,  of  the  blood,  of  the  nervous 
system,  of  the  whole  vitality  of  the  mother,  that 
to  meddle  with  it  meddles  with  her  very  existence. 

The  vast  importance  of  the  maternal  office  is 
strikingly  shown  in  estimates  of  the  influence  of 
the  female  reproductive  system  upon  the  whole  life 
which  have  been  made  by  distinguisned  medical 
writers.  "  P 'ropier  uterum  est  mil  Her,"  asserts  one 
of  them — "Woman  exists  for  the  sake  of  the 
womb."  And  Professor  Hubbard,  of  New  Haven, 
in  an  annual  discourse  before  a  medical  society 
during  1870,  spoke  as  follows:  "The  sympathies 
of  the  uterus  with  every  other  part  of  the  female 


DANGER    OF    PREVENTIONS.  15 

organism  are  so  evident,  and  the  sympathetic  rela- 
tions of  all  the  organs  of  woman  with  the  uterus 
are  so  numerous  and  complicated,  so  intimate  and 
often  so  distant,  yet  pervading  her  entire  being, 
that  it  would  almost  seem,  to  use  the  expression  of 
another,  '  as  if  the  Almighty,  in  creating  the  female 
sex,  had  taken  the  uterus  and  built  up  a  woman 
around  it.'  "  And  again,  he  calls  this  organ  "  the 
great  central  pivotal  organ  of  her  existence." 

Even  when  brought  on  without  special  violence 
— even  when  merely  resulting  from  general  or  local 
imperfections  previously  existing,  miscarriages  are 
recognized  as  perilous  to  an  exceptional  and  even 
mysterious  degree.  All  the  standard  writers  on 
the  subject  are  as  strenuous  as  language  will  per- 
mit, in  their  warnings  against  causing  miscar- 
riages, in  requiring  the  extremest  delicacy  of  pre- 
caution for  avoiding  them,  and  in  depicting  not 
only  their  temporary  and  immediate  consequences, 
but  the  terrible  danger  that  they  will  cause 
the  utter  ruin  of  all  health  and  happiness  during 
whatever  is  left  of  life.  Thus,  Dr.  Thomas  Bull 
observes:  "There  is  no  accident  befalling  female 
iiealth  which  forms  a  greater  source  of  dread,  anx- 
iety, and  subsequent  regret  to  a  married  woman 
than  miscarriage.  When  this  occurrence  becomes 
habitual,  there  is  no  circumstance  the  consequences 
of  which  are  productive  of  more  serious  injury  to 
the  constitution,  blasting  the  fairest  promises  of 


(6  PARTUKITION    WITHOUT.    PAIN. 

aealth,  and  ofttimes  laying  the  first  seeds  of  fatal 
disease." 

This  intrinsic  danger  is  frightfully  increased 
when  drugs  or  violence  are  used  in  order  to  break 
up  the  natural  course  of  gestation  by  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  unborn  child.  Much  attention  has, 
especially  of  late  years,  been  called  to  the  wide 
prevalence  of  such  practices,  and  the  assertion  has 
been  extensively  and  often  made  that  American 
women  are  peculiarly  addicted  to  it,  and  those  of 
New  England  more  than  any  other.  Whatever  may 
be  the  exact  statistics  of  the  subject,  and  while  the 
practice  itself  is  as  bad  as  it  can  be  called,  yet  it  is 
extremely  probable  that  in  this  case,  as  in  many 
others,  publicity  and  prevalence  are  confounded. 
No  evil  can  be  exposed  by  thorough  local  investi- 
gation without  apparent  proof  that  the  locality  best 
investigated  was  worst  conditioned — which  is  a 
fallacious  mode  of  reasoning. 

However,  the  practice  of  deliberately  procuring 
abortions  is  no  doubt  quite  frequent,  awfully  dan- 
gerous, and  awfully  wicked.  Recent  publications 
on  the  subject,  by  Dr.  Storer,  Dr.  Todd,  Bishop 
Coxe,  and  others,  have  so  powerfully  attacked  thia 
wicked  practice,  from  physiological,  mortl,  and 
religious  considerations,  that  no  extended  discussion 
of  it  is  necessary  here,  even  did  space  permit  it. 
A  summary  of  considerations  mast  suffice. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  remind  the  reader  that 


DANGER    Of    PREVENTIONS.  17 

the  commor.  sense  of  mankind  has  been  expressed 
in  numerous  laws  inflicting  fine,  imprisonment,  or 
death,  upon  the  principals  and  accessories  in  pro 
curing  an  abortion,  as  upon  those  guilty  of  a 
felony.  In  like  manner,  a  stigma  of  horror  and 
contempt  is  always  set  upon  a  known  abortionist 
like  that  \vhich  used  to  brand  the  slave-trader.  If 
he  be  a  physician,  his  brethren  reject  him;  if  a 
quack,  all  society  rejects  him.  Neither  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  dollars,  limitless  magnificence,  a 
tine  house  on  Fifth  Avenue,  the  possession  of  the 
most  dangerous  secrets,  eager  ambition,  nor  unfail- 
ing energy,  has  been  able  to  secure  a  respectable 
social  position  to  the  best  known  female  abortionist 
in  New  York. 

For  this  shame  and  horror  there  is  overwhelm- 
ing cause.  The  procuring  of  an  abortion  is  putting 
to  death  a  human  being — that  is,  it  is  murder,— 
unless  there  exist  reasons  as  weighty  and  as  urget  t 
as  those  which  prevent  the  taking  of  adult  lift 
from  being  murder. 

It  is,  moreover,  self-murder  also  in  many  cases, 
for  the  number  of  deaths  resulting  directly  and 
quickly  from  it  is  very  great,  and  still  greater  is  the 
destruction  of  life  by  shortening  and  sickening  the 
subsequent  existence  of  the  mother.  "  Miscarriages," 
says  Dr.  Storer,  "  are  often  a  thousand-fold  more 
dangerous  in  their  immediate  consequences  than 
the  average  of  natural  labors.  .  .  .  They  arc  no* 


IS  PAKTUK1T1ON    WITHOUT   PAIN. 

only  frequently  much  more  hazardous  to  life  at 
the  time,  but  to  subsequent  health ;  theiz  results  in 
some  instances  remaining  latent  for  many  years,  at 
times  not  shoeing  themselves  until  the  so-called 
turn  of  life,  and  then  giving  rise  to  uncontiollable 
and  fatal  hemorihuge,  or  to  the  development  of 
cancer  or  other  incurable  disease." 

Among  the  results  to  the  mother  other  than 
death,  from  what  may  be  called  natural,  still  more 
from  artificial  miscarriage,  are  all  the  numer- 
ous and  varied  miseries  of  displacement  aud  fall- 
ing of  the  womb  ;  leucorrhoea  ;  ovarian  disorders, 
liable  to  end  in  tumor  or  dropsy;  dangerous  in- 
flammations of  the  reproductive  organs  and  of 
others  trom  sympathy  with  them  ;  fistulas,  perhaps 
the  most  horrible  of  surgical  diseases;  adhesions, 
degenerations,  and  numerous  other  permanently 
distressing  results  of  these  inflammations  ;  subse- 
quent inability  to  produce  any  but  sickly  or  de- 
formed children;  total  barrenness;  and  last,  List 
not  least,  insanity. 

Belies  that  it  is  murder  to  the  child-victim, 
frequently  suicide,  murder,  or  physiological  ruin 
to  the  mother,  and  a  felony  in  all  engaged  in  perpe- 
trating it,  the  habitual  practice  of  procuring  abor- 
tions, like  the  habitual  practice  of  any  crime,  saps 
the  life  and  strength  of  the  community,  as  \vell  as 
of  the  individuals  who  compose  it;  and  Storer 
aptly  quotes  from  Granville  on  Sadden  Death,  the 


DANGER    OF    PREVENTIONS.  1& 

impressh  P  warning :  "  Let  the  legislal  or  ai.d  mor- 
alist look  to  it;  for  as  sure  as  there  is  in  any  nation 
a  hidden  tampering  with  infant  life,  whether  fre- 
quent 01  occasional,  systematic  or  accidental,  so 
surely  will  the  chastisement  of  the  Almighty  fall 
upon  such  a  nation 

Both  celibacy  anu  frustrated  fruitfulness  are 
unnatural  and  perilous.  There  are,  however, 
as  has  been  observed,  exceptional  cases  when  the 
enforcement  of  both  one  and  the  other  may  be 
justified.  There  may  be  cases  where  a  miscarri- 
age ought  to  be  produced,  just  as  there  are  cases 
where  a  living  child  must  be  put  to  death  in  the 
very  act  of  delivering  the  mother.  It  is,  however, 
the  physician's  duty  to  pass  and  execute  such  judg- 
ments ;  and  he  is  bound,  in  doing  so,  to  act  from 
the  motives  of  his  profession,  and  not  to  consult 
the  patient's  fear  of  shame,  nor  her  desire  to  avoid 
the  care  of  maternity.  There  are  cases  where  pecu- 
liarities of  organization  or  disposition  indispose  or 
unfit  individuals  for  matrimony;  and  such  per- 
sons do  rightly  to  live  single.  But  such  cases  do 
not  at  all  interfere  with  the  principles  above  set 
forth  as  generally  true. 

A  more  difficult  question  is  that  sometimes 
raised,  whether  inheritable  disease  should  prevent 
Uie  person  infected  with  it  from  marriage  ?  On 
this  point,  it  is  believed  that  most  opinions  .iaii  be 
ranked  in  two  groups:  one  starting  from  the  belief 


20  PARTURITION    WITHOUT   PAIN. 

that  the  requisite  self-denial  for  such  avoidance  of 
marriage  is  practicable ;  and  the  other  that  it  ia 
not.  The  truth  is,  that  in  the  present  state  of  our 
knowledge  about  the  real  nature  of  diseases,  and 
of  transmissibility  of  qualities  from  parent  to 
offspring,  the  materials  for  an  authoritative  deci- 
sion of  this  question  do  not  exist;  and  no  such, 
applicable  to  all  cases,  can  be  given.  At  the  same 
time  it  is  clear  that  to  a  high-minded  person  the 
fact  of  being  tainted  with  a  disorder  likely  to  ruin 
the  health  and  happiness  of  offspring  would  be  a 
very  powerful  motive  for  refraining  from  marriage. 
And  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  the  recuperative 
energies  of  the  human  organism,  both  individually 
and  as  a  succession  of  generations,  are  so  indefi- 
nite and  so  wonderful,  that  great  excuse  could  be 
found  for  almost  any  one  who  should  marry  and 
have  children,  notwithstanding  such  an  objection. 
It  is  an  obvious  suggestion,  that  when  persona 
having  inheritable  disease  become  parents,  mere 
justice,  as  well  as  natural  affection,  require  that 
they  should  bestow  special  and  untiring  pains  and 
care  to  counteract  the  evil  tendency  in  the  chil- 
dren by  the  healthiest  possible  training,  in  order 
that  the  natural  forces  may  be  helped  as  far  aa 
may  be  to  ej^ct  01  overcome  the  malignant  influ- 
ences. 


CHAPTER  III. 

OPINIONS  ON  PAINLESS   CHILDBIRTH. 

THE  accounts  given  by  travellers  of  the  marvel- 
lous ease,  quickness,  painlessness,  and  freedom 
from  disablement,  with  which  many  savage  women 
bring  forth  children,  are  well  known.  There  is  great 
reason  for  believing  that  among  some  savage  races 
neither  pregnancy  nor  labor  interrupts  the  usual 
avocations  and  movements  of  the  mother,  except, 
perhaps,  for  an  hour  or  two  at  the  birth  itself.  Lt 
is  not,  however,  so  generally  known  that  the  re- 
cords of  medical  observations  contain  accounts  of 
a  number  of  cases  of  almost  equally  complete 
contradictions  of  what  is  commonly  considered  a 
primal  and  universal  curse  upon  humanity. 

Dr.  Tuke,  a  high  authority,  says:  "  Parturition 
itself,  according  to  the  general  testimony  of  travel- 
lers, interferes  much  less,  and  for  a  shorter  period, 
with  the  healthy  action  of  the  body  and  mind 
among  savage  nations  than  among  the  luxurious 
daughters  of  artificial  life." 

Dr.  Dewees,  one  of  the  best  authorities  in  obstet- 
rics, has  argued  in  one  of  his  publications,  that 
"  pain  in  childbirth  is  a  morbid  symptom  ;  that  it 


22  PA.RTUBITION    WITHOUT    PAIN. 

is  a  perversion  of  nature  caused  by  modes  of  living 
not  consistent  with  the  most  healthy  condition  of 
the  system;  and  that  such  a  regimen  as  should 
insure  such  a  completely  healthy  condition  might 
l>e  counted  on  with  certainty  to  do  away  with  such 
pain."  The  account  of  the  Fruit  Diet  system,  given 
in  our  subsequent  Chapter  VII.,  demonstrates,  it  ia 
believed,  an  entire  fulfillment  of  this  prediction  of 
the  eminent  Philadelphia  physician. 

In  like  manner  we  find  the  great  English  scien- 
tist, Professor  Huxley,  saying,  in  his  paper  on 
" Emancipation,  Black  and  White,"  "We  are,  in- 
deed, fully  prepared  to  believe  that  the  bearing  of 
children  may,  and  ought  to  become,  as  free  from 
danger  and  long  disability  to  the  civilized  women 
as  it  is  to  the  savage." 

The  following  paragraphs,  from  one  of  the  essays 
in  Dr.  Montgomery's  classical  work  on  Pregnancy, 
are  interesting  as  giving  circumstantial  details  of 
cases  in  illustration  of  the  belief  in  the  practica- 
bility of  painless  parturition : 

"In  a  letter  to  me,  dated  5th  November,  1832, 
Dr.  Douglas  states  that  he  was  called  about  six 
o'clock  A.M.,  on  the  26th  of  September,  1828,  to 

attend  Mrs.  D.,  of  the  county  of  W ,  but  them 

residing  in  Eccles  Street.  On  his  arrival  he  found 
the  house  in  the  utmost  confusion,  and  was  told 
that  the  child  had  been  born  before  the  messt-Tigei 
was  dispatched  for  the  doctor;  and  from  the  lad  5 


OPINIONS    ON    PAINLESS    CHILDBIRTH.  23 

t  .rself  he  learned  that,  about  half  an  horn  previ- 
ously, she  had  been  awakened  from  a  natural  sleep 
by  the  alarm  of  a  daughter  about  five  years  old. 
who  had  slept  with  her  for  some  nights  before,  and 
this  alarm  i  ad  been  occasioned  by  the  little  girl 
feeling  the  movements  and  hearing  the  crying  of  an 
infant  in  the  bed.  To  the  mother's  great  surprises 
she  found  that  she  had  brought  forth  her  child 

without  any  consciousness  of  the  fact In 

the  London  Practice  of  Midwifery,  a  work  gener- 
ally ascribed  to  a  late  very  distinguished  practi- 
tioner, we  find  the  following  account : 

"'A  lady  in  great  respectability,  the  wife  of  a 
peer  of  the  realm,  was  actually  delivered  once  in 
her  sleep:  she  immediately  awaked  her  husband, 
being  a  little  alarmed  at  finding  one  more  in  bed 
than  was  before.'  .... 

"  I  have  elsewhere  mentioned  the  case  of  a  patient 
of  mine  who  bore  eight  children  without  ever  hav- 
ing labor  pain  ;  and  her  deliveries  were  so  sudden 
and  void  of  sensible  effort,  that  in  more  than  one 
instance  they  took  place  under  most  awkward  cir- 
cumstances, but  without  any  suffering Dr. 

Wharrie  relates  the  case  of  a  primipara  (i.  e.,  a 
woman  bearing  children  for  the  first  time),  aged 
twenty-one,  who  had  been  in  labor  about  six  hours ; 
ghe  complained  of  no  pain,  and  the  child  was  bore 
without  effort  or  consciousness." 

A  case  is  known  of  a  lady  in  New  England  wh<i 


24  PAKTITUITIOM    WITHOUT.    PAIN. 

hal  five  children,  arid  who,  unless  at  her  first  de« 
livery,  experienced  n(  pain ;  and  another  case  is 
known  of  a  lady  whose  reputation  is  high  as  a 
writer  and  speaker,  who  asserted  that  it  was  her 
own  experience  that  the  so-called  pains  of  child- 
birth were  no  more  entitled  to  the  name  than  the 
sensations  attendant  upon  other  natural  processes 
which  are  ordinarily  entirely  painless. 

All  these  cases,  it  should  be  noted,  were  of  women 
in  good  health;  and  the  two  latter,  at  any  rate, 
were  persons  of  exceptionally  fine  and  strong  con- 
stitutions. In  like  manner,  those  women  of  savage 
nations  who  bear  children  without  pain,  live  much 
in  the  open  air,  take  much  exercise,  and  are  phys- 
ically active  and  healthy  to  a  degree  greatly  beyond 
their  more  civilized  sisters. 

These  instances  tend  directly  to  prove  that  par- 
turition is  likely  to  be  painless  in  proportion  as  the 
mother  is  physically  perfect  and  in  a  perfect  con- 
dition of  be<uih.  They  certainly  tend  even  more 
strongly  to  prove  that  pain  is  not  an  absolutely 
necessary  attendant  of  parturition. 

As  for  the  announcement  of  Genesis  iii.  16,  "In 
Borrow  thou  shalt  bring  forth  children,"  it  may 
judiciously  be  compared  with  the  accompanying 
announcement  to  the  maiL  that  he  should  earn  his 
bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  This  latter  does 
not  prohibit  the  ameliorations  of  associated  effort, 
Dr  of  labor-saving  machinery ;  not  even  if  at  some 


OPINIONS    ON    PAINLESS    CHILDBIRTH  25 

future  time  these  should,  as  seems  not  improbable, 
elevate  mankind  above  the  necessity  of  yielding  the 
greater  part  of  life  to  mere  drudgery.  Nor  does 
the  former  prediction  prohibit  the  use  of  means  to 
diminish  the  suffering  which  it  foretells.  It  would 
be  a  wicked  misrepresentation  of  the  Almighty, 
indeed,  to  assert  that  in  prophesying  evil,  he  had 
meant  to  refuse  escape  from  it.  God  is  good,  and 
does  not  do  so.  If  he  prophesies  evil,  it  is  not  in 
order  to  perpetuate  it,  but  if  possible  to  prevent  or 
cure  it.  Indeed,  the  language  may  properly  be 
considered  as  a  prediction  merely.  As  such  it  has 
already  been  abundantly  fulfilled.  There  has  been 
suffering  enough  in  childbirth  to  satisfy,  not 
merely  a  God,  but  a  devil.  There  is  enough  within 
every  day  that  passes  over  our  heads.  For  tht 
great  majority  of  women  in  civilized  nations,  par- 
turition is  a  period  of  intense  pain.  Doubtless 
the  total  of  its  sufferings  are  the  greatest  single 
item  of  every-day  human  misery.  Dr.  Storer  says : 
"There  is  probably  no  suffering  ever  experienced 
which  will  compare,  in  proportion  to  its  extent 
in  time,  with  the  throes  of  parturition."  And 
he  quotes  from  Dr.  Meigs,  who  says:  "Men  can- 
not suffer  the  same  pain  as  women.  What  do  you 
call  the  pains  of  parturition?  There  is  no  name 
for  them  but  Agony." 

The  course  of  modern   scientific  investigation, 
However,  has  gone  far  to  justify  a  belief  that  this 
3 


2t>  PARTUUITION    WITHOUT    PAIN 

terrific  burdm  upon  humanity  can  be  ul most  en 
tirely  removed;  that  the  pain  of  parturition  can 
be  as  completely  done  away  with  as  the  danger  and 
disfigurement  of  small-pox,  for  instance.  It  is  the 
object  of  the  following  chapters  to  set  forth  briefly 
the  substance  of  the  best  principles  and  rules  that 
have  been  arrived  at  for  this  purpose,  up  to  the 
present  time. 

At  the  same  time,  this  immeasurable  benefit  to 
humanity  cannot  be  obtained  without  the  proper 
use  of  means,  and  the  continuance  of  such  use  for 
a  considerable  period.  The  doctrines  of  the  ablest 
thinkers  on  the  subject,  will  be  found  to  agree  in 
this;  that  it  is  the  previous  life  of  the  mother — 
the  whole  of  it,  from  her  own  birth  to  the  birth  of 
ner  child — which  almost  entirely  determines  what 
her  danger,  her  difficulty,  and  her  pain  during 
childbirth  shall  be.  Her  easy  or  difficult  labor, 
in  fact,  is  almost  entirely  her  own  work.  Her  con- 
duct during  gestation,  it  is  true,  is  more  imme- 
diately influential  in  the  decision  than  that  of 
remoter  periods,  and  is  or  may  be  greatly  more 
influential  upon  the  future  life  of  her  offspring 
than  even  upon  herself.  But  the  suggestions  to  be 
given  in  these  pages  about  the  whole  previous  life 
of  the  mother,  although  at  first  they  may  seem  too 
indirectly  concerned  with  the  subject,  are  not  so 
by  any  means. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

PBEPARATION   FOE   MATERXITT. 

Ii  Is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  life  of  women 
before  marriage  ought  to  be  adjusted  with  more 
reference  to  their  duties  as  mothers  than  to  any 
other  one  earthly  object.  It  is  the  continuance  of 
the  race  which  is  the  chief  purpose  of  marriage. 
Tht  passion  of  amativeness  is  probably,  on  the 
whole,  the  most  powerful  of  all  human  impulses, 
its  purpose,  however,  is  rather  to  subserve  the  ob- 
ject of  continuing  the  species,  than  merely  its  own 
gratification. 

AM,  however,  this  little  treatise  does  not  discuss 
either  physiology,  hygiene,  education,  or  social 
ethics,  what  is  to  be  said  on  the  general  subject  of 
this  chapter  is  only  a  series  of  reminders  or  hints, 
each  of  them  meant  to  be  reinforced  by  a  special 
reference  to  their  importance  in  the  preparation  for 
maternity. 

The  mother  nreds  to  be  strong,  healthy,  sensible, 
well-informed,  well-mannered,  refined,  accom- 
plished, kind,  pure,  and  good.  The  girl,  accord- 
ingly, needs  to  be  brought  up  to  be  such. 

Girls  should  be  brought  up  to  live  much  in  thi 


28  PARTURITION   WITHOUT   PAIN. 

open  air,  always  with  autindant  clothing  against 
wot  and  cold.  They  should  be  encouraged  to  tr.ke 
much  active  exercise  ;  as  much,  if  they  want  to,  aa 
boys.  It  is  as  good  for  little  girls  to  run  and  jump, 
to  ramble  in  the  woods,  to  go  boating,  to  ride  and 
drive,  to  play  and  "have  fun"  generally,  as  for 
little  boys. 

All  their  physiological  and  hygienic  habits  should 
be  watched  and  formed  as  early  in  life  as  possible. 
It  is  next  to  impossible  to  change  after  adult  years 
are  reached ;  it  only  requires  steady  care  to  form 
the  habits  of  a  child  so  that  they  shall  need  no 
change. 

Sleep  should  be  regular  and  plentiful ;  in  airy 
rooms ;  at  early  hours ;  each  child  in  a  separate 
bed.  After-life  will  afford  all  that  is  necessary  in 
the  way  of  late  hours,  bad  air,  and  broken  rest. 
As  for  habitually  sleeping  two  in  a  bed,  while  no 
absolute  rule  can  be  laid  down  on  the  subject,  it  is 
coming  to  be  believed  by  many  sersible  thinkers, 
that  even  among  married  people  it  ts  by  no  means 
always  the  most  healthful  practice 

Children  should  be  carefully  prevented  from 
using  their  eyes  to  read  or  write,  or  in  any  equiva- 
lent exertion,  either  before  breakfast,  by  lim  day- 
light, or  by  artificial  light.  Even  school  studies 
should  usually  be  such  that  they  can  be  dealt  with 
by  daylight  Lessons  that  cannot  be  learned  with- 
ou,  lamp-light  study  are  a1  most  certainly  excessive 


FKEPA  EATION    FOR    MATERNITY.  29 

This  precaution  should  ordinarily  be  maintained 
ontil  the  age  of    puberty  is  reached.     When  the 
girl  'xjgins  to  study  with  the  sense*  of  a  self-ccn- 
du  '.oing  intellect,  she  has  reached  an  age  when  her 
physical  as  well  as  mental  training  should  by  righ£ 
be  intrusted  as  far  as  possible  to  her  own  guidanc. , , 
and  she  must,  in  a  great  measure,  take  charge  of 
her  own  eyes  as  well  as  her  own  thoughts  and  con 
duct. 

The  food  should  be  healthful,  plain,  cooked  with 
as  much  care  as  if  the  process  were  chemical,  and 
almost  always  nutritious  merely,  and  cooling, 
rather  than  stimulant,  in  quality.  Coffee  and  tea, 
alcoholic  fluids  and  spices,  rich  cake  and  pastry, 
had  better  be  put  off  until  adult  age.  If  they  are 
used  then,  it  is  on  the  recipient's  own  responsibility. 
Abundance  of  luxuries  for  the  palate  may  be  al- 
lowed not  only  without  harm  but  with  advantage, 
by  selecting  among  good  fresh  and  preserved  fruits 
and  nuts  ;  by  choosing  confectionery  made  only  of 
clean  good  sugar  and  clean  good  flavors,  and  by 
giving  it  exclusively  as  adessert,i\\  moderate  quanti- 
ties. Thus  associated  with  other  food,  it  will  be 
found  as  harmless  as  the  brown  sugar  or  molasses 
eaten  with  buckwheat  cakes. 

Bathing  should  be  enforced  according  to  con- 
stitutions, not  by  an  invariable  rule,  except  tht 
invariable  rule  of  keeping  clean.  Not  necessarily 
every  day,  nor  necessarily  in  cold  water  •  though 


W  PARTURITION    WITHOUT   PAIN. 

those  conditions  are  doubtless  often  right  in 
of  abundant  physical  health  and  strength. 

The  teeth  should  be  closely  watched,  and  tho 
irksome  task  of  brushing  them  should  be  person- 
ally supervised  by  the  parent  eveiy  day.  It  will 
often  be  the  case  that  no  less  watchfulness  than 
this  will  assure  the  performance  of  the  duty  up 
to  the  time  when  the  girl  begins  to  care  for  hei 
own  personal  attractions. 

The  habit  of  daily  natural  evacuations  should 
be  solicitously  formed  and  maintained.  Words  or 
figures  could  never  express  the  discomforts  and 
wretchedness  which  wrong  habits  in  this  particu- 
lar have  locked  down  upon  innumerable  women 
for  years  and  even  for  life. 

Attitude  should  be  regarded,  so  far  as  not  merely 
to  cultivate  habitually  decorous  manners  in  sit- 
ting and  moving,  but  as  to  firmly  establish  habit- 
aally  healthy  postures  of  body.  It  is  seldom  neces- 
sary to  use  such  deformity-cures  as  back-boards, 
braces,  etc.  They  usually  follow  upon  previous 
neglect.  Few,  indeed,  are  the  girls  who,  if  brought 
up  with  sufficient  open-air  exercise,  good  food, 
proper  sleep,  healthful  costume,  and  correct  hy- 
gienic habits,  will  poke  out  their  chins,  round  their 
shoulders,  or  develop  a  curvature  of  the  spine. 
As  in  mind,  so  in  body — human  beings  are  a  pretty 
fair  average,  after  all,  if  we  let  nature  ha\e  a  fail 


FKEI'ARA  ION    FOR   MATERNITY  31 

Dress  should  be  warm,  loose,  comely,  ai  d  modest 
ruther  than  showy ;  but  it  should  be  good  enough 
to  satisfy  a  child's  desires  after  a  good  appearance, 
if  they  are  reasonable.  Children,  indeed,  should 
have  all  their  reasonable  desires  granted  as  far  as 
possible ;  for  nothing  makes  them  reasonable  s« 
rapidly  and  so  surely  as  to  treat  them  reasonably. 

The  requisites  just  named  for  children's  dress 
are  quite  as  important  during  youth  and  married 
life.  Dr.  Verdi,  in  his  work  on  Maternity,  traces 
in  a  very  striking  way  the  influence  of  dress  upon 
the  children  of  the  next  generation.  What  he  says 
exhibits  the  following  chain  of  causes  and  effects, 
and  is  worthy  to  be  set  forth  in  whole  discourses 
and  volumf  e  by  itself,  though  it  must  here  be  com- 
pressed— like  a  misdressed  young  lady — perhaps 
too  much  for  the  greatest  utility.  It  is  thus : 

Children  and  young  persons  should  be  dressed 
with  equal  warmth  throughout,  so  that  shoulders, 
arms,  lower  body,  legs,  and  feet  shall  be  as  well 
defended  against  cold  md  wet  as  the  body  from 
waist  to  shoulders.  T.iat  exposure  of  legs  and 
lower  body,  which  is  so  extremely  common  for  chil- 
dren, chills  the  skin.  This  clogs  and  impedes  the 
circulation,  and  especially  drives  away  the  blood 
from  the  abdomen.  This  obstructs  digestion,  even 
causes  the  bowels  to  almost  cease  their  functions, 
and  causes  a  habitually  constipated  condition. 
Tins  condition  is  one  of  the  most  usual  curses  o< 


32  PARTURITION     V\  IT II OUT   PAIN. 

gnbsequent  displacements  of  the  womb,  leucc  rr 
ulceration,  and  other  local  disorders  extremely 
painful  and  wearing.  These,  lastly,  are  well-nigh 
fatal  to  the  prospect  of  healthy  children,  and  in 
many  cases  leave  the  mother  who  has  grown  up 
thus  disordered  actually  incapable  of  carrying  a 
child  to  full  term,  and  condemned  to  miscarriages 
at  the  sixth  or  eighth  week,  with  all  their  miser- 
able concomitants. 

At  school,  girls  should  not  be  forced  to  excess- 
ive study.  Great  harm  is  every  year  done  in  such 
forcing-houses  as  Miss  Mary  Lyon's  famous  school, 
and  even  in  such  comparatively  low-pressure  ma- 
chines as  Vassar  College,  by  over-stimulation  of 
girls'  minds  and  deficient  hygienic  physical  train 
ing,  exactly  at  he  delicate,  critical  period  when 
they  are  changing  from  girls  to  women.  The  pro- 
portion between  book-work  and  mental  labor  oil 
one  hand,  and  physical  training  on  the  other, 
should  be  so  adjusted,  that  if  either  mental  or 
physical  progress  must  be  temporarily  neglected, 
it  shall  not  be  the  latter  ;  for  at  the  school-girl  age, 
a  few  months  of  ill-health  or  neglected  symptoms 
may  seriously  compromise  all  the  rest  of  life,  and 
life's  happiness.  This  consideration  is  of  greater 
importance  than  a  hundred  years  of  "  schooling." 

The  young  lady  period — as  perhaps  that  season 
may  be  called  between  the  close  of  school  yeara 
and  the  time  of  marriage — has  also  its  j,ecuU<ir 


PREPARATION    FOR    MATERNITY.  SJl 

needs.  However,  what  has  been  said  o*  young 
girls  is  true,  with  the  requisite  qualifications,  of 
marriageable  maidens  also.  They  must  be  allowed 
more  elaborateness  and  adornment  of  attire.  They 
range,  with  more  or  less  of  freedom,  through  some 
circuit  of  entertainments  and  company.  They 
read  novels  ;  they  are  out  late  ;  they  swallow  solid 
or  liquid  trash  ;  they  dance,  they  flirt,  they  court 
— until  marriage  conies  to  close  the  last  scene  of 
this  strange,  eventful  history — and  then  to  reopen 
it,  as  soon  as  the  birth-cry  of  the  first-born  thrills 
the  mother's  heart. 

Great  harm  is  often  done  to  maidens  for  want  of 
knowledge  in  them,  or  wisdom  and  care  in  their 
parents.  The  extremes  of  fashions  are  very  prone 
to  violate  not  only  taste,  but  physiology.  Such 
cases  are,  tight  lacing,  low-necked  dresses,  thin 
shoes,  heavy  skirts.  And  yet,  if  the  ladies  only 
knew  it,  the  most  attractive  costumes  are  not  the 
extremes  of  fashions,  but  those  which  conform  to 
fashion  enough  to  avoid  oddity,  which  preserve 
decorum  and  health  fulness,  whether  or  no;  and 
here  is  the  great  seciot  of  successful  dress — vary  the 
fashion  so  as  to  suit  the  style  of  the  individual. 

A  sensible  girl  and  her  sensible  mother  can 
accomplish  all  this.  Indeed,  let  such  a  pair  as  that 
consult  confidentially  and  unreservedly,  and  that 
girl  is  safe  every  way.  She  will  dress  beautifully, 
and  yet  comfortably;  she  will  enjoy  heiself  com- 


34  PARTURITION    WITHOUT   PAIN. 

pletely,  and  yet  without  disordering  her  stomach, 
killing  the  roses  in  her  cheeks,  or  draining  her  life 
D  ut  in  i'utigues  and  sleeplessness;  she  will  read 
extensively  and  abundantly,  yet  without  slip-slop- 
ping her  mind  away  with  the  novels  of  the  foolish 
sort,  or  inflaming  and  disorganizing  it  with  such 
printed  erysipelas  as  Braddou's  and  Ouida's  books. 

Last  of  all  the  parental  cares  is  the  use  of  what- 
ever influence  can  be  exerted  in  the  matter  of 
courtship  and  marriage.  Maidens,  as  well  as  youths, 
must,  after  all,  choose  for  themselves.  It  is  their 
own  lives  which  they  take  in  their  hands  as  they 
enter  the  marriage  state,  and  not  their  parents'; 
and  as  the  consequences  aifect  them  primarily,  it  is 
the  plainest  justice  that  with  the  responsibility 
should  be  joined  the  right  of  choice. 

The  parental  influence,  then,  must  be  indirect 
and  advisory.  Indirect,  through  the  whole  bring- 
ing up  of  their  daughter;  for  if  they  have  trained 
her  aright,  she  will  be  incapable  of  enduring  a  fool, 
still  more  a  knave. ;  her  feminine  instincts  and  in- 
tuitions, cultivated  and  sanctified  by  the  purity  and 
intelligent  thought  of  a  refined  home,  will  have 
become  capable  of  giving  great  light  upon  any 
question  of  liking  or  disliking  that  may  arise,  and 
die  truthful  unreserve  of  a  good  daughter  with  a 
good  mother  will  usually  supply  all  the  further 
gu.dar.ee  that  is  necessary.  If  a  sensible  matron 
and  a  sensible  maiden  together  cannot  conclude 


PREPARATION    FOR    MATERNITY.  35 

pretty  safely  in  any  case  where  a  young  man  is 
concerned,  the  question  may  about  as  well  be 
decided  by  tossing  up  a  cent. 

Yet  there  are  some  points  respecting  the  inter- 
course of  young  women  with  young  men  that  are 
worth  referring  to.  They  come  pretty  much  with  in 
one  general  rule : 

A  young  woman  and  a  young  man  had  better  not 
be  alone  together  very  much  until  they  are  married. 

This  will  be  found  to  prevent  a  good  many 
troubles.  It  is  not  meant  to  imply  that  either  sex, 
or  any  member  of  it,  is  worse  than  another,  or  bad 
at  all,  or  anything  bat  human.  It  is  simply  the 
prescription  of  a  safe,  general  rule.  It  is  no  more 
an  imputation  than  the  rule  that  people  had  better 
not  be  left  without  oversight  in  presence  of  large 
sums  of  other  folks'  money.  This  does  not  mean 
that  people  are  thieves — it  means  only  that  they 
are  human;  and  it  will  be  found  in  practice  that 
the  more  thoroughly  honest  a  man  is,  the  more 
careful  he  is  to  avoid  any  pecuniary  temptation 
himself,  and  to  provide  for  constant  and  stringent 
oversight  upon  himself. 

It  is  not  good  for  a  young  man  and  a  young 
woman  to  be  left  much  alone  together  either  in  a 
dimly  lighted  room  or  a  brightly  lighted  one;  nor 
anywhere,  except  where  they  are  liable  to  the  or- 
dinary interruptions  of  the  household.  The  close 
personal  proximity  ef  the  sexes  is  greatly  unde- 


36  PARTURITION   WITHOUT   PAIN. 

sirable  before  marriage.  Kisses  and  caresses  are 
most  properly  the  monopoly  of  wives.  Such  indul- 
gences have  a  direct  and  powerful  physiological 
effect.  Nay  they  often  lead  to  the  most  fatal  re- 
sults. 

At  some  time  before  marriage,  those  who  are  to 
enter  into  it  ought  to  be  made  acquainted  with 
some  of  the  plainest  common-sense  limitations 
which  should  govern  their  new  relations  to  each 
other.  Ignorance  in  such  matters  has  caused  an 
infinite  quantity  of  disgust,  pain,  and  unhappiness. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  specify  particulars  here; 
but  if  the  mother  of  every  bride  would  instruct 
her  daughter  in  what  a  woman  should  comply 
with  her  husband,  and  when  and  how  she  ought  to 
seek  to  decline  compliance ;  and  if  the  father  of 
every  bridegroom  would  instruct  his  son  as  to  the 
just  limits  of  indulgence,  as  to  a  gentleman's  duty 
of  self-control  and  respect  toward  a  lady,  and  as  to 
the  proper  occasions  for  exe~?ising  such  self-con- 
trol in  the  marital  relations,  chis  is  all  Uiat  could 
be  done,  and  it  would  be  a  great,  deal. 


CHAPTER  V. 

EXERCISE   DURING   PREGNANCY. 

IN  considering  how  the  mother  can  adjust  hei 
ways  of  living  during  pregnancy  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  insure  the  termination  of  the  process  in  the 
safest  and  easiest  manner  possible,  the  question  oi 
bodily  exercise  may  be  first  discussed. 

It  is,  no  doubt,  almost  needless  to  argue  that 
some  such  general  preparation,  by  careful  living 
luring  pregnancy,  is  best.  But  much  more  than 
such  a  mere  general  careful  living  is  best.  The 
period  of  gestation  should  be  solicitously  em- 
ployed for  the  purpose  in  question,  on  system, 
regularly,  and  under  the  best  accessible  instruc- 
tions. 

It  may  not  be  generally  known  that  before  the 
performance  of  many  important  surgical  opera- 
tions, it  is  the  practice  to  carry  patients  through  a 
course  of  training  on  purpose  to  prepare  their 
bodies  to  endure  the  expected  strain  upon  them. 
This  training  differs,  of  course,  from  that  by  which 
pugilists  prepare  their  bodies  for  the  immense 
exertion  of  a  fight ;  but  its  purpose  is  just  the  same 

4 


38  PARTURITION    WITHOUT    PAIN. 

— to  prepare  the  body  to  endure,  with  the  least 
possible  pain  and  injury,  an  unusual  and  violent 
exertion  or  strain.  Dr.  Storer  (Gynecological 
Journal,  ii.  19),  thus  refers  to  this  training  for 
surgical  purposes : 

"  Preparation  of  the  patient  before  an  opera- 
tion, by  weeks  or  months  of  careful  general  regi- 
men, or  of  special  care,  ....  depuration  of  the 
blood  and  its  enrichment  preparatory  to  the  tax 
upon  it — these  were  matters  of  cardinal  impor- 
tance." 

There  are,  undoubtedly,  cases  in  which  great 
care  needs  to  be  taken  to  avoid  motion  during 
pregnancy.  These  cases  are,  where  there  is  dan- 
ger of  miscarriage.  This  is  a  misfortune  which, 
for  some  unknown  reason,  grows  into  what  may 
be  called  a  constitutional  habit  more  quickly,  and 
becomes  confirmed  more  surely  and  permanently, 
than  almost  any  other.  Wtere  it  has  once  taken 
place,  the  danger  of  its  happening  again  is  greatly 
increased ;  and  the  utmost  care  is  usually  neces- 
sary to  bring  the  system  back  again  to  its  natural 
condition.  One  of  the  most  important  precautions 
for  this  purpose  is  to  be  as  nearly  motionless  as 
possible ;  for  the  local  weakness  which  exists  in 
such  cases  seems  to  depend  greatly  upon  an  ina- 
bility to  resist  what  may  be  called  the  mechanical 
results  even  of  the  ordinary  exertions  of  every-day 
life ;  and  the  restoration  of  the  healthy  local  con- 


EXERCISE    DURING    PREJNAXCY.  89 

seem  to  depend  greatly  upon  the  avoidance 
of  such  exertion. 

Leaving  out,  however,  such  exceptions,  the  gen- 
eral rule  is  not  that  indolence  promotes  the  health 
and  the  easy  p;irturitioii  of  the  mother,  and  the 
health  and  safety  of  her  offspring,  but  exactly  the 
contrary.  From  the  beginning  of  pregnancy,  even 
more  care  than  usu^l  should  be  taken  to  use  regu- 
lar, abundant,  and  healthful  (N.  B.,  not  excessive 
nor  violent)  exercise,  particularly  during  the  first 
months  of  the  period.  As  its  termination  ap- 
proaches, more  and  more  repose  may  be  sought,  ad 
circumstances  shall  indicate. 

Dr.  Thomas  Bull,  an  experienced  and  sensible 
English  obstetrical  practitioner,  gives  the  follow- 
ing clear  and  useful  directions  on  this  point : 

"  During  the  first  six  or  seven  months,  frequent 
arid  gentle  exercise  in  the  open  air  and  domestic 
occupations  which  require  moderate  exertion,  are 
exceedingly  desirable ;  both  have  a  beneficial  influ- 
ence on  the  health  of  the  mother,  and  through  her. 
upon  the  child.  The  former  invigorates  health, 
the.  latter  contributes,  by  its  regular  return  and 
succession  of  duties,  to  employ  her  1'me,  and  thus 
insures  that  ease  and  serenity  of  mind  so  essential 
to  her  happiness.  On  the  other  hand,  excessive 
effeminacy  is  highly  injurious.  The  female  whose 
time  's  spent  in  indolence,  continually  reclining 
>n  a  softly-cushioned  sofa,  in  the  unwholesome 


40  PAErUKlTION    W1THOU1 


atmosphere  of  an  over-heated  apartment,  w/io  nevei 
breathes  the  fresh  and  pure  air  of  heaven,  but  is 
fearful  of  even  putting  her  foot  to  the  ground,  and 
who  yet,  perhaps,  at  the  same  time  indulges  pretty 
freely  an  immoderate  appetite,  under  such  circum- 
stances, is  not  likely  to  preserve  her  health,  much 
less  to  improve  it;  in  fact,  it  must  suffer  serious 
injury.  Unfortunately  the  evil  will  not  stop  here  ; 
for  by  such  improper  and  injudicious  conduct  the 
nutrition  and  growth  of  the  child  must,  as  a  natu- 
ral consequence,  be  much  interfered  with,  and  when 
born,  it  will  be  feeble,  perhaps  emaciated,  and  will 
be  reared  with  difficulty. 

"  During  the  last  few  weeks  exercise  should  still 
be  taken  in  the  open  air;  but  as  walking,  with 
some,  is  now  attended  with  inconvenience,  and  so 
quickly  with  fatigue,  that  it  is  injurious  instead  of 
useful,  exercise  in  a  convenient  and  easy  carriage 
becomes  indispensable.  Domestic  duties  must  be 
almost  altogether  given  up;  and  the  recumbent 
position  ought  to  be  resorted  to  for  at  least  two  or 
three  hours  in  the  course  of  the  day  ;  and  it  should 
never  be  forgotten  that  throughout  the  whole 
period  of  pregnancy,  every  kind  of  agitating  exer- 
cise, such  as  riding  in  a  ca'riage  with  rapidity  on 
uneven  roads,  dancing  mucn  and  frequently,  lift- 
ing or  carrying  heavy  weights,  ought  to  be  avoided  j 
in  short,  all  masculine  aud  fatiguing  employment* 
whatever." 


EXKRCISE    DUKINtr    PREGNANCY,  4} 

Dr.  Verdi,  in  his  Maternity,  devotes  t/it  little 
space  to  general  hygiene,  as  his  work  is  a  detailed 
enumeration  of  maladies  and  their  remedies.  The 
half-dozen  lines  in  which  he  condenses  his  recom- 
mendations on  this  question  of  exercise  are  very 
solid  sense.  He  says: 

"  Take  daily  exercise  in  the  open  air ;  do  not 
lace;  do  not  run;  do  not  jump;  do  not  drive  un- 
safe horses ;  give  up  dancing  and  riding"  [?'.  e.,  on 
horseback];  "do  not  plunge  into  cold  water. 
Many  women  in  your  condition  will  tell  you  they 
have  done  these  things,  and  no  harm  befell  them ; 
still,  do  none  of  them.  Sponging  your  body  will 
answer  for  cleanliness,  and  a  happy  heart  for  the 
dancing  and  riding." 

"A  gently  active  life,"  is  the  still  briefer  and 
very  judicious  phrase  used  by  another  authority, 
who  adds  that  even  the  strongest  must  be  careful 
to  practise  moderation  in  this  activity. 

Moderate,  gentle,  agreeable  exercise  daily,  then, 
is  the  rule;  some  of  it  in  the  open  air  always  if 
possible;  and  to  include,  where  it  is  otherwise  ex- 
pedient, a  share  of  the  housework.  This  etercise 
to  be  taken  more  especially  during  the  first  seven 
months  or  thereabouts  of  pregnancy,  and  to  be 
gradually  diminished  as  health  and  comfort  re- 
quire, until  confinement.  Good  exercises  are,  walk- 
ing, but  not  to  fafigue;  driving,  but  over  smooth 
roads,  at  a  moderate  speed,  and  with  safe  horses 

4* 


«2  PARTimiTION    WITHOUT   PAIN. 

The  things  to  be  avoided  are:  fatigue,  an<i 
sudden  strains  and  exertions;  and  things  that 
ought  not  to  be  done,  as  liable  to  produce  those 
results,  are :  riding  on  horseback ;  driving  rapidly, 
or  so  as  to  be  jolted,  in  a  carriage;  riding  in 
railway  cars;  dancing;  running;  jumping;  reach- 
ing aloft  (as  in  hanging  out  clothes,  or  putting 
up  curtains) ;  carrying  weights  (as  a  pail  of  water, 
a  heavy  basket,  etc.) ;  standing  or  kneeling  for  a 
long  time ;  singing  much  while  in  either  of  these 
postures. 

In  all  this,  moreover,  it  should  be  remembered 
that  the  forenoon  is  the  best  part  of  the  day  for 
exercise:  the  afternoon  the  second  best  only;  the 
evening  the  worst ;  and  early  going  to  bed  highly 
expedient.  Exercising  in  the  morning,  and  avoid- 
ing it  in  the  latter  part  of  the  afternoon  and  even- 
ing, will  secure  two  advantages :  first,  the  use  of 
the  best  of  the  physical  strength,  and  thus  avoid- 
ing the  additional  risks  from  exertion  when  the 
body  is  more  or  less  fatigued  with  the  results  of 
the  day's  occupation ;  and  second,  the  use  of  the 
best  of  the  sunshine  and  air,  which  are  always 
more  vital  and  inspiring  in  the  forenoon ;  while 
toward  evening  there  is  risk  of  harm  from  damp- 
ness, dew,  and  cold. 

One  caution  should  here  be  added,  which  has 
become  necessary  only  of  late  years.  During  preg- 
nancy oven  more  care  than  usual  should  be  oi> 


EXERCISE    DURING    PREGNANCY.  4JJ 

served,  to  avoid  doing  treadle-work,  ei:her  on  a 
sewing-machine,  or  on  a  melodeon  or  othei  sinv 
ilarly  operated  musical  ii.etrument.  This  i&  • 
point  of  much  importance. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    8ITZ-BATH,   AND    BATHING    GENERALLY,    IH 
PREGNANCY. 

BATHING,  like  eating,  should  be  agreeable.  For 
healthy  people,  and  properly  managed,  it  is  agree- 
able. It  is  an  error  to  insist  upon  one  particulai 
mode  of  applying  water  to  everybody  alike. 
Strength,  constitution,  present  physical  condition, 
previously  acquired  habits,  should  all  be  considered. 
It  would  be  inconsiderate  if  not  quackish,  for  in- 
stance, to  prescribe  a  full  bath  in  cold  water 
immediately  upon  getting  out  of  bed,  for  every- 
body, men,  women,  and  children,  sick  or  well,  all 
alike.  Some  persons  of  abundant  vitality  and 
great  and  prompt  reactive  power,  would  find  a  daily 
thorough  plunge  and  swim  agreeable,  even  if  they 
had  to  cut  a  hole  in  the  ice  to  make  room  enough 
to  swim  in ;  whilo  another,  of  weaker  physique, 
might  be  so  chilled  by  the  process  as  to  experience 
dangerous  internal  congestions  or  other  affections 
of  the  circulation  and  vifal  processes. 

Accordingly,  the  bath  should  be  cold,  tepid, 
warm,  or  hot ;  full  or  partial ;  by  plunge,  sponge, 
douche,  sitz,  etc. ;  at  rising,  before  meals,  c  »*  bed- 


GENERAL    BATHING    IN    PKEGNANCY.  4ft 

time,  and  so  on,  is  the  condition  and  characteristics 
of  the  individual  require. 

These  suggestions  are  especially  important,  of 
course,  in  regulating  the  use  of  the  bath  during 
pregnancy.  As  in  the  case  of  physical  exercise,  a 
proper  allowance  of  it  is  of  great  importance  and 
advantage,  while  excess  or  error  in  employing  it 
may  do  much  harm. 

The  milder  of  the  modern  methods  of  hydro- 
pathic practice  afford  very  sensible  directions  for 
managing  the  application  of  baths  for  medical  or 
physiological  purposes;  and  such  suggestions  as 
are  here  offered  are  believed  to  be  in  accordance 
with  those  mild  methods. 

The  usual  bathing  for  cleanliness,  it  is  taken  for 
granted,  will  be  kept  up  during  pregnancy,  o' 
course.  That  use  of  cold  or  tepid  water  which 
has  been  found  suitable  for  this  purpose  will  not  be 
less  agreeable,  healthful,  or  restful,  at  this  period 
than  at  others. 

Of  the  use  of  the  sitz-batu  in  particular,  Dr. 
Shew  speaks  as  follows : 

"  Pregnant  women  receive  much  benefit  from  a 
constant  use  of  this  bath.  A  small  tub  of  suf- 
ficient size,  set  upon  a  very  low  stool,  or  anything 
by  which  it  may  be  raised  a  few  inches,  is  quite 
sufficient.  Unpainted  wood  is  the  best  material, 
metal  being  unpleasant  and  cold.  The  water  is 
used  from  one  to  fire  or  six  inches  deep.  The 


40  PARTURITION   WITHOUT    PAIN 

length  jf  t.me  this  bath  is  used  varies  from  a  few 
minutes  to  two  hours  or  more.  To  avoid  exposure 
to  cold,  it  is  best  to  uncover  only  the  part  of  the 
person  to  be  exposed  to  the  water.  This  bath  haa 
the  effect  of  strengthening  the  nerves,  or  drawing  the 
blood  and  humors  from  the  head,  chest,  and  abdo- 
men, and  of  relieving  pain  and  flatulency ;  and  is  ol 
the  utmost  value  to  those  of  sedentary  habits.  It  is 
sometimes  well  to  take  a  foot  bath,  tepid  or  cold,  at 
*.he  same  time.  If  a  large  quantity  of  cold  water 
were  used  in  this  bath,  it  would  remain  cold  too 
long,  and  thus  drive  the  blood  to  the  head  and 
upper  parts  of  the  body,  which  might  be  very 
injurious;  but  the  small  quantity  of  water  used  at 
once  becomes  warm,  and  thus  admits  of  speedy 
reaction.  In  some  local  diseases  of  the  lower  parts, 
where  there  is  inflammation,  and  the  cold  water  feels 
most  agreeable,  the  water  is  frequently  changed. 
If  there  is  any  inclination  to  headache,  or  too 
much  heat  in  the  head,  a  cold  bandage  upon  the 
forehead  or  temples  is  good.  It  is  often  well  to 
rub  the  abdomen  briskly  during  this  bath.  The 
sitz-bath  may  be  used  by  any  person,  whether  in 
health  or  otherwise,  without  the  slightest  fear  of 
taking  cold.  Let  those  subject  to  giddiness,  head- 
aches, or  congestion  of  blood  in  the  upper  re- 
gions, try  this,  and  they  will  at  once  perceive  its 
utility." 
The  tub  or  bath  used  for  this  purpose  should  bo 


GENERAL    BATHING    IN    PREGNANCY.  47 

l&rge  enough  to  admit  of  rubbing  the  person,  if 
desirable.  It  will  be  found  a  great  convenience  to 
raise  it  a  few  inches  from  the  floor.  Care  should 
be  taken  not  to  use  the  sitz-bath  while  the  stomach 
is  fully  occupied  in  digestion,  as  the  call  madj 
upon  the  skin  and  circulation  by  the  bath  diverts 
too  much  of  the  vital  power  from  the  stomach  lu 
his  Water  Cure  Manual,  Dr.  Shew  thus  sun.3  up 
the  uses  of  the  sitz-bath  : 

"  As  a  tonic  to  the  stomach,  liver,  bowels,  womb, 
spine,  etc.,  this  bath  is  highly  useful.  In  constipa- 
tion and  other  irregularities  it  is  famous.  Those  of 
sedentary  habits  will  find  its  use  of  rare  service. 
For  the  tonic  effect,  it  is  taken  for  from  ten  to 
twenty-five  minutes  or  more.  If  it  is  continued 
some  longth  of  time,  the  water  is  to  be  changed 
once  or  more,  as  it  would  otherwise  become  too 
warm. 

"In  pregnancy,  besides  general  ablutions,  the 
semi-daily  use  of  this  bath  is  productive  of  great 
good.  In  those  troublesome  itchings  (pruritus 
pudendi),  this  application  should  be  made  as  often 
as  the  symptoms  occur,  and  the  remedy  will  be 
found  a  sovereign  one. 

"In  piles  and  hemorrhoids  the  cold-hip  bath  is 
used,  and  in  all  acute  diseases  of  the  genital 
organs. 

The  best  time  in  the  day  for  the  sitz-bath  ig 
just  before  rctirirg  for  the  night.   Probably  the  best 


48  PAllTUUITlON     WITHOUT    Pi  IN. 

temperature  for  the  water  is  90°  F.  No  shock  shoiud 
1/e  given  to  the  system,  and  the  bath  should  be  so 
arranged  as  to  be  entirely  comfortable.  It  is  well, 
while  in  the  bath,  to  have  an  attendant  rub 
thoroughly  but  gently  the  back,  from  the  shoulders 
down  to  the  hips,  with  the  bare  hand,  and  also  the 
sides  and  abdomen.  Besides  the  general  tonio 
effect  upon  the  whole  system,  this  practice, 
Btrengthens  all  the  muscles  of  those  parts  greatly, 
and  relieves  any  congestion  that  may  have  been 
caused  by  clothing  or  other  means.  We  have 
never  known  a  woman  who  used  the  sitz-bath 
properly  during  pregnancy  but  found  great  benefit 
from  it 


CHAPTER 

PAINLESS  PARTURITION  BY  FRUIT  DIET. 

IN  1841,  there  was  privately  printed  in  England, 
a  small  pamphlet  of  twenty-two  pages,  in  which  a 
gentleman,  who  was  a  chemist,  gave  an  account  ol 
an  experiment  he  himself  tried  in  the  case  of  his 
wife,  whose  labors  had  been  so  excessively  painful 
that  there  was  much  reason  to  fear  she  would  not 
survive  the  next  one.  The  result  was  so  favorable 
that  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  publish  it  Avith  his  name 
and  residence,  and  a  reference  to  "the  ladies,  No. 
27  Charlotte  Street,  Portland  Place,  London," 
where  inquiries  might  be  made  by  others  wishing 
to  verify  the  experiment;  and  where,  it  was  re- 
quested, might  be  left  accounts  of  other  successful 
results  of  the  plan  of  action. 

A  few  experiments  were  made  in  Boston  and 
vicinity  with  distinguished  success ;  when  the  dis- 
covery of  ether  rather  threw  it  into  the  shade. 
As,  however,  there  are  persons,  especially  out  of 
New  England,  who  do  not  use  ether,  the  following 
extracts  are  made  from  the  pamphlet  in  question, 
which  has  now  become  very  scarce,  and  indeed) 
pnicti ^illy  inaccessible.  It  will  be  best  to  begin  b_j 
5 


60  PARTURITION    WITHOUT   PAIN. 

stating  the  principle  of  the  system,  with  which  th« 
experimenter  ends  his  account,  viz.,  "In  proportion 
aa  a  woman  subsists  during  pregnancy  upon  ali- 
ment which  is  free  from  earthy  and  bony  matter, 
will  she  avoid  pain  and  danger  in  delivery;  hence 
the  more  ripe  fruit,  acid  fruit  in  particular,  and  the 
less  of  other  kinds  of  food,  but  particularly  of  bread 
or  pastry  of  any  kind,  is  consumed,  the  less  will  be 
danger  and  sufferings  of  childbirth." 

The  subject  of  this  experiment  had,  within 
three  years,  given  birth  to  two  children  ;  and  no* 
only  suffered  extremely  in  the  parturition,  but  for 
two  or  three  months  previous  to  delivery  her  gene- 
ral health  was  very  indifferent;  her  lower  extremi- 
ties exceedingly  swelled  and  painful ;  the  veins  so 
full  and  prominent  as  to  be  almost  bursting;  in 
fact,  to  prevent  such  a  catastrophe,  bandages  had 
to  be  applied ;  and  for  the  few  last  weeks  of  gesta- 
tion, her  size  and  weight  were  such  as  to  prevent 
her  attending  to  her  usual  duties.  She  had  on 
this  occasion,  two  years  and  a  half  after  her  last 
delivery,  advanced  full  seven  months  in  pregnancy 
before  she  commenced  the  experiment  at  her  hus- 
band's earnest  instance;  her  legs  and  feet  were,  aa 
before,  considerably  swelled,  the  veins  distended 
and  knrtty.  and  her  health  diminishing. 

She  began  the  experiment  in  the  first  week  of 
January,  1841.  She  commenced  by  eating  an 


TAIN  LESS    PAUriJIllTiON    BY    FKUIT    DIET.          .*>! 

appi?  und  an  orange  the  first  thing  in  the  morn- 
iug  iina  Hgaiii  at  nigh^.  This  was  continued  ibi 
about  four  days,  when  she  took  just  before  break- 
fast in  addition  to  the  apple  and  orange,  the  juice 
of  a  lemon  mixed  with  sugar,  and  at  breakfast 
two  or  three  roasted  apples,  taking  a  very  small 
quantity  of  her  usual  food,  viz.,  wheaten  bread  and 
butter.  During  the  forenoon  she  took  an  orange 
or  two  and  an  apple.  For  dinner  took  fish  c 
flesh  in  a  small  quantity,  and  potatoes,  greens, 
and  apples — the  apples  sometimes  peeled  and  cut 
into  pieces ;  sometimes  boiled  whole,  along  with 
the  potatoes ;  sometimes  roasted  before  the  fire, 
and  afterward  mixed  with  sugar.  In  the  afternoon 
she  sucked  an  orange  or  ate  an  apple  or  some 
grapes,  and  always  took  some  lemon-juice  mixed 
with  sugar  or  treacle.  At  first  the  fruits  acted 
strongly  on  the  stomach  and  intestines,  but  this 
soon  ceased,  and  she  could  take  several  lemons 
without  inconvenience.  For  supper  she  had 
again  roasted  apples  or  a  few  oranges,  and  rice 
or  sago  boiled  in  milk ;  sometimes  the  apples, 
peeled  and  cored,  were  boiled  along  with  the  rice 
and  sago.  On  several  occasions  she  took  for 
supper  apples  and  raisins,  or  figs  with  an  orange 
cut  among  them,  and  sometimes,  all  stewed  to- 
gether. Two  or  three  times  a  week  she  took  a 
teaspoon ful  of  a  mixture  made  of  the  juice  of  two 
oranges,  one  lemon,  half  a  pound  of  grapes,  and 
5* 


62  PARTURITION   W1T110UT   PAIN. 

it  quarter  of  a  pound  of  sugar  or  treacle.  Th« 
sugar  or  treacle  served  mainly  to  cover  the  taste 
of  the  acids,  but  all  saccharine  matter  is  very 
nutritious.  The  object  in  giving  these  acids 
was  to  dissolve  as  much  as  possible  the  earthy 
or  bony  matter  which  she  had  taken  with  her  food 
in  the  first  seven  months  of  her  pregnancy. 

She  continued  in  this  course  for  six  weeks,  when 
to  her  surprise  and  satisfaction,  the  swelled  and 
prominent  state  of  the  veins,  which  existed  before 
she  began,  had  entirely  subsided ;  her  legs  and 
feet,  which  were  also  swelled  considerably,  had  re- 
turned to  their  former  state ;  and  she  became  so 
light  and  active,  she  could  run  up  and  down  a 
Right  of  more  than  twenty  stairs  with  more  ease 
than  usual  when  she  was  perfectly  well.  Her 
health  became  unwontedly  excellent,  and  scarcely 
an  ache  or  a  pain  affected  her  up  to  the  night  of  her 
delivery.  Even  her  breasts,  which  at  the  time  she 
commenced  the  experiment,  as  well  as  during  her 
former  pregnancies,  were  sore  and  tender,  became 
entirely  free  from  pain,  and  remained  in  the  very 
best  condition  after  her  delivery  also,  ard  during 
her  nursing. 

At  nine  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  March  3d, 
after  having  cleaned  her  apartments,  she  was  in  tht 
adjoining  yard  shaking  her  own  caipets,  which 
ehe  did  with  as  much  ease  as  any  one  else  could 
have  done.  At  half-past  ten  she  said  she  believed 


PAINL1SSS    PARTURITION    B1     FRUIT    DIKT.  53 

nei  "time  was  come/'  and  the  accoucheur  wua 
Bent  for.  At* one  o'clock  the  surgeon  had  left  the 
room.  He  knew  nothing  of  the  experiments  being 
made,  but  on  being  asked,  on  paper,  by  the  husband 
two  days  afterward,  if  he  "  could  pronounce  it  at 
safe  and  as  easy  a  delivery  as  he  generally  met  with," 
he  replied,  on  paper,  "I  hereby  testify  that  1 
attended  Mrs.  Rowbotham  on  the  3d  instant,  and 
that  she  had  a  safe  labor,  and  more  easy  than  I 
generally  meet  with."  On  his  asking  the  female 
midwife  if  she  thought  it  as  easy  as  usual,  she 
replied,  "Why!  I  should  say  that  a  more  easy 
labor  I  never  witnessed — I  never  saw  such  a  thing, 
and  I  have  been  at  a  great  many  labors  in  my  time." 
The  child,  a  boy,  was  finely  proportioned  and 
exceedingly  soft,  his  bones  being  all  in  gristle,  but 
he  became  of  large  size  and  very  graceful,  athletic, 
and  strong  as  he  grew  up.  The  diet  of  his  mother 
was  immediately  changed  on  his  birth,  and  she 
eat  bread  and  milk  and  all  articles  of  food  in 
which  phosphate  of  lime  is  to  be  found,  and  which 
had  been  left  out  before.  She  also  got  up  from 
her  confinement  immediately  and  well.  After  her 
last  delivery,  July,  1838,  full  ten  days  elapsed  be- 
fore she  could  leave  her  bed,  and  then  she  swooned 
at  the  first  attempt;  on  this  occasion,  March, 
1841,  she  left  her  bed  the  fourth  day,  and  not  only 
washed  but  partly  dre«sed  herself.  Had  she  not 
been  influenced  by  custom  and  somewhat 


M  PAKTURIT7ON     WlTHl  UT   PAIN. 

she  might  have  done  so  sooner.  To  be  assisted 
appeared  like  a  burlesque  to  her.  not- to  say  annoy- 
ance. She  had  no  assistance  from  medicine  ;  only 
one  bottle  bad  been  sent  by  the  surgeon,  and  thia 
she  refused  to  take. 

In  the  former  pregnancy  she  had  subsisted  very 
much  on  bread,  puddings,  pics,  and  all  kinds  of 
pastry,  having  an  idea  that  solid  food  of  this  kind 
was  necessary  to  support  and  nourish  the  foetus — 
and  it  is  quite  right  to  suppose  that  nutritious  food 
is  necessary  for  this  purpose  ;  but  nutritious  food 
can  be  had  without  that  hard  and  bony  matter, 
which  "Is  so  large  an  ingredient  in  wheaten  flour,  for 
instance.  The  West  Indian  grains — sago,  tapioca, 
rice,  etc. — have  little  of  it ;  and  Mr.  Rowbotham 
made  a  table  of  substances,  with  the  proportion  of 
phosphate  of  lime  in  each,  BO  that  it  may  be 
avoided  in  the  food  during  pregnancy,  and  used 
afterward  in  nursing,  when  the  bones  and  teeth 
of  the  child  are  made.  Wheat  contains  most 
earthy  matter.  [In  Parke's  Chemical  Catechism, 
page  194,  he  quotes  La  Grange  aa  saying  that 
a  person  who  eats  a  pound  of  farina  a  day,  swal- 
lows in  a  year  three  ounces,  four  clraohms,  ana 
forty-four  grains  of  phosphate  of  lime.] 

Beans,  rye,  oats,  barley,  have  not  so  much 
earthy  matter  as  wheat.  Potatoes  and  peas  not 
more  than  half  as  much  ;  flesh  of  fowls  and  )oung 
animals  one-tenth ;  rice,  sago,  fish,  eggs,  etc  still 


PAINLESS    PARTURITION    BT    FRUIT    DIET.          5fc 

iess  ;  cheese,  one-twentieth  ;  cabbage,  savoy,  broc- 
coli, articnokes,  coleworts,  asparagus,  endives, 
rhubarb,  cauliflower,  celery,  and  fresh  vegetables 
generally ;  turnips,  carrots,  onions,  radishes,  garlic, 
parsley,  spinage,  small  salad,  lettuce,  cucumbers, 
leeks,  beet-root,  parsnips,  mangel-wurzel,  mush- 
rooms, vegetable  marrows,  and  all  kinds  of  herbs 
and  flowers,  average  less  than  one-fifth;  apples, 
pears,  plums,  cherries,  strawberries,  gooseberries, 
raspberries,  cranberries,  blackberries,  huckleberries, 
currants,  melons,  olives,  peaches,  apricots,  pine- 
apples, nectarines,  pomegranates,  dates,  prunes, 
raisins,  figs,  lemons,  limes,  oranges,  and  grapes,  on 
the  average  are  two  hundred  times  less  ossifying  than 
bread  or  anything  else  prepared  of  wheaten  flour. 

Some  articles,  as  honey,  treacle,  sugar,  butter, 
oil,  vinegar,  and  alcohol,  if  unadulterated,  are  quite 
free  from  earthy  matter.  But  still  worse  than 
wheaten  flour  is  common  salt,  and  nearly  as  bad 
are  pepper,  cinnamon,  nutmeg,  cloves,  ginger,  cof- 
fee, cocoa,  Turkey  rhubarb,  liquorice,  lentils, 
cinchona  or  Peruvian  barks,  cascarilla,  sarsapa- 
rilla,  and  gentian. 

With  regard  to  drinks,  :io  water  except  rain 
and  snow,  as  it  falls,  and  distilled  water,  is  free  from 
earthy  matter,  and  every  family  should  have  a 
distilling  apparatus ;  and  perhaps  it  would  pay 
capitalists  to  form  a  company  for  the  purpose  oi 
distilling  water  on  a  large  scale.  Filtering  M  ate/ 


66  PARTURITION   WITH  OUT   PAIN. 

is  not  sufficient  to  purify  it  of  earthy  mattei,  be- 
cause a  filter  can  only  remove  such  particles  as  are 
mechanically  mixed,  and  mere  boiling  produces  no 
beneficial  change.  Spring  water,  pure  and  limpid 
as  it  appears  to  the  eye,  is  found,  upon  chemical 
examination,  to  contain  a  very  large  proportion 
of  calcareous  earthy  matter ;  so  much  indeed  that 
it  has  been  calculated  that  a  person  drinking  an 
average  quantity  of  water  per  day  for  forty  years, 
will,  in  that  time,  take  into  his  body  as  much  as 
would  form  a  pillar  of  marble  as  large  as  an  aver- 
age-sized man.  As  it  evaporates  from  the  body, 
it  leaves  behind  the  earthy  matter  which  it  holds 
in  solution,  and  thus  tends  to  choke  up  or  incrust 
the  blood-vessels  and  nerves ;  in  short,  to  harden 
«md  petrify  the  whole  system,  in  the  same  manner 
as  we  find  it  incrust  vessels  from  which  water  is 
evaporated  (for  this  incrusting  only  takes  place 
where  the  water  goes  off  in  the  form  of  steam  or 
vapor).  Water  from  rivers  and  pits,  in  addition 
to  calcareous  earthy  matter,  generally  contains 
putrid  or  vegetable  substances. 

But  drink  of  any  kind  is  foreign  to  human  na- 
ture in  its  original  capacity.  If  men  ate  every  day 
as  much  fruit  as  they  ought,  they  would  never  oe 
thirsty,  and  so  need  no  drink  at  all. 

Before  adding  to  the  above  account  of  the 
experiment  others  made  in  consequence  of  it,  by 
veil-known  persons  in  England  and  America,  we 


PAINLESS    PARTUJUTIOX    BY    FHU1T    DIK1.          5*1 

may  copy  Mr.  Kowbotham's  account  of  the  origin 
of  his  idea.  It  was  from  reading,  in  the  Penny 
Cyclopedia,  the  following  paragraph  : 

"  When  first  the  human  embryo  becomes  dis- 
tinctly visible  it  is  almost  wholly  fluid,  consisting 
only  of  a  soft  gelatinous  pulp.  In  this  gelatin- 
ous pulp  solid  substances  are  formed,  which 
gradually  increase  and  are  fashioned  in  organs. 
These  organs  in  their  rudimentary  state  are  soft 
and  tender;  but  in  the  progress  of  their  develop- 
ment, constantly  acquiring  a  greater  number  of 
solid  particles  the  cohesion  of  which  progressively 
increases,  the  organs  at  length  become  dense  and 
firm.  As  the  soft  solids  augment  in  bulk  and 
density,  bony  particles  are  deposited,  sparingly  at 
first  and  in  detached  masses,  but  accumulated  by 
degrees;  these  too,  are  at  length  fashioned  into 
distinct  osseous  structures,  which,  extending  in 
every  direction  until  they  touch  at  every  point, 
ultimately  form  the  connected  bony  framework 
of  the  system.  This  bony  fabric,  although  soft, 
solid,  and  tender  at  first,  becomes  by  degrees  firm 
and  resisting." 

Upon  the  above  remarks  he  reasoned  thus : 
"If  the  first  visible  state  of  the  human  being 
is  that  of  a  fluid,  or  soft  gelatinous  pulp ;  and  if 
the   embryo   or  foetus   gradually  consolidates,  01 
increases  in  firmness  and  density  bj  the  accumu 
lation  of  bony  particles,  will  it  not,  at  any  given 


58  PARTUFaXION    WITHOU'I     PAIN". 

period  of  its  existence,  be  more  or  less  firm  n& 
cording  to  the  bony  matter  which  lias  bjeu 
deposited  ? 

"  And  is  not  the  mother's  blood  the  source  of 
tli  is  bony  matter,  since  it  builds,  supports,  and 
nourishes  the  foetus  ? 

"And  is  not  the  mother's  blood  derived  from  her 
food  and  drink  ?  and  according  to  the  proportion 
of  bony  matter  existing  in  them,  will  not  the 
foetus  become  more  or  less  firm  and  resisting  ?" 

Moreover,  he  knew  that  it  made  all  the  differ- 
ence whether  the  foetus  were  in  gristle  or  not,  at 
birth,  with  respect  to  the  pain  of  labor ;  and  that 
it  was  better  for  the  future  size  and  beauty  of 
the  child,  and  even  its  strength,  that  it  should  be 
born  with  gristle,  and  not  with  the  bones  har- 
dened, but  that  the  latter  process  should  be  the 
consequence  of  its  own  food  taken  after  birth. 
Hence  he  very  philosophically  concluded  to  try 
the  experiment  of  having  his  wife  feed  during 
gestation  on  substaaces  which  did  not  hold  a  large 
proportion  of  phosphate  of  lime,  which  is  the  hard 
ingredient  of  bone,  but  take  those  substances 
during  her  period  of  nursing,  and  feed  the  child 
upon  them  during  its  growth. 

The  experiment  succeeded  in  a  partial  trial  in 
this  morbid  case,  and  it  has  succeeded  in  every 
normal  case  in  which  it  has  been  tried,  as  far  aa 
is  now  known.  The  first  case  that  is  reported 


PAINLESS   x  AR'/URITIOBT   BY    (TRUIT   DIET.         59 

peisonally,  was  that  of  an  English  lady,  who 
had  learned  from  the  pamphlet.  She  brought  to 
America  a  most  beautiful  child,  which  attracted 
every  body's  attention ;  looking,  as  one  person  taid, 
"like  a  young  god."  She  said  that  from  the  first 
moment  she  thought  she  was  pregnant,  she  lived 
without  eating  any  bread,  potatoes,  or  milk ;  but 
subsisted  on  sago,  tapioca,  rice,  young  meat — when 
she  took  meat,  fruits  of  all  kinds,  and  vegetables ; 
and  drank  tea  and  lemonade  made  with  distilled 
water.  She  said  she  never  had  an  hour  of  nausea 
or  discomfort  during  her  pregnancy;  had  so  easy 
a  labor  that  she  thought  it  not  worth  dreading; 
and  her  boy,  small  and '  soft  at  birth,  became 
unusually  large,  hard,  and  strong  at  six  months. 
When  born,  he,  like  Mr.  Rowbotham's,  was  covered 
from  head  to  foot  with  a  downy  substance  that 
could  only  be  seen  when  held  against  the  light, 
superior  to  the  finest  velvet,  and  of  a  beautiful 
feathery  appearance. 

An  American  lady,  who  usually  suffered  terribly 
in  labor,  immediately  procured  the  pamphlet  and 
governed  her  diet  by  it  partia  ly,  and  had  the  easiest 
labor  she  had  ever  had.  Another,  who  governed 
herself  wholly  by  it,  from  the  first  moment  she 
was  aware  of  being  pregnant,  like  the  English  lady 
never  experienced  a  moment's  discomfort  before 
delivery.  She  had  taken  nothing  made  of  our 
grains,  but  confined  hemlf  to  the  West  Indiao 


60  PARTURITION    WITHOU1    PAIN. 

ones — rice,  sago,  tapioca;  and  taking  a  cl.sgnst  U 
our  summer  fruits,  subsisted  largely  on  oran'ges, 
tamarinds,  marmalades,  and  also  took  a  great  many 
lemons.  At  first,  the  fruits  made  her  bowels  too 
loose,  but  she  did  not  abandon  them  on  that 
account,  but  took  mutton  hroth  with  rice  in  it,  to 
convet  this  effect.  She  also  took  fish  and  sardines, 
and  the  young  of  meats;  for  the  older  animals  are, 
the  greater  quantity  of  earthy  matter  is  contained 
in  their  secretions,  and  so  it  is  even  with  milk. 
She  had  so  little  thirst  that  she  drank  nothing 
but  a  little  tea  made  with  distilled  water.  This 
lady  and  her  husband  were  neither  of  them  very 
young — she  was  thirty-five  and  he  forty  at  the 
birth  of  her  eldest  child ;  and  she  had  been  an 
invalid  in  her  chamber  from  fifteen  to  thirty  years 
of  her  life,  though  very  well  at  the  time  of  her 
pregnancy,  and  for  the  first  time  of  her  life  taking 
much  exercise  in  the  open  air.  Consequently,  and 
because  of  her  extreme  nervous  delicacy,  she  did 
not  escape  pain  in  the  labor  the  first  time,  and  the 
process  was  several  hours.  But  in  the  two  suc- 
ceeding times,  at  the  last  of  which  she  was  f  jrty, 
the  labors  were  very  short  and  not  at  all  severe. 
In  all  the  cases  she  rigidly  adhered  to  the  diet, 
without  a  single  day's  exception  ;  and  her  three 
children  were  perfectly  splendid  instances  of  large, 
healthy,  strong,  and  beautiful  phym'quc.  The 
youngest  of  them  is  now  eighteen  years  of  age. 


PAINLKSS   PARTURITION    BY    FRUIT   DIET.          6l 

Only  one  ever  had  any  important  illness,  and 
Jiat  from  extraneous  cause,  surmounted,  as  the 
physician  said,  by  her  perfect  constitution.  The 
teeth  of  all  these  children  are  very  hard,  like 
rocks. 

No  other  case  is  now  known  of  such  exact 
compliance  with  the  conditions  as  this  one,  but 
in  very  many  cases  partial  compliance,  with  cor- 
responding success ;  and  it  is  worthy  of  observation 
that  in  all  those  countries  where  tropical  grains, 
rather  than  those  of  the  temperate  zones,  are  the 
food,  and  where  vegetables  and  fruits  predomi- 
nate in  the  diet,  as  in  the  south  of  Europe,  among 
the  negroes  of  the  Southern  United  States,  among 
the  Hindoos,  and  tropical  nations  generally, 
parturition  is  nearly  painless.  Combe  says :  "  The 
very  easy  labors  of  native  American  negresses  are 
not  explicable  by  any  prerogative  of  physical  for- 
mation, for  the  pelvis  is  rather  smaller  in  these 
dark-colored  races  than  in  the  European  and  other 
white  people." 

Nor  is  it  to  be  referred  to  habits  of  greater  exer- 
cise:  "The  Hindoo  and  other  females,  whose 
habits  are  anything  but  laborious,  have  always 
very  easy  labors." 

In    short,   the  diet  is  the  only  cause  to  which 

et*sy  or  difficult  labor  may  be  referred  in  general. 

In  twenty-five  years  there  has  been   known   no 

molhe?  who  tried  this  experiment  who  has   not 

fi 


02  PARTUKITKW    WITHOUT    PAIN. 

blessed  the  knowledge  of  it ;  and  it  has  saved  man  j 
a  young  mother  needless  terror. 

Thus  far  the  pamphlet  of  Mr.  Kowbotham. 

A  few  additional  observations  on  the  subject  of 
diet,  appetite,  and  the  stomach  luring  pregnancy, 
may  not  be  out  of  place. 

Derangement  of  the  stomach,  to  greater  or  lesa 
extent,  is  one  of  the  most  common  and  trustworthy 
signs  of  pregnancy.  The  extent  and  troublesome- 
ness  of  this  ailment  will,  however,  be  found  very 
greatly  diminished  by  the  vegetable  and  fruit  regi- 
men above  described,  by  the  use  of  the  bath,  judi- 
cious open-air  exercise,  etc. ;  in  short,  by  living  in 
a  wise,  active,  cheerful,  and  healthful  manner. 

A  common  error  is,  that,  during  gestation,  the 
mother  needs  to  "  eat  for  two  ;"  that  is,  that  more 
food  is  necessary  to  support  properly  herself  and 
her  growing  infant  than  at  other  times.  This  is  a 
thorough  delusion.  On  this  point,  and  on  diet 
during  pregnancy  generally,  Dr.  Bull,  the  very 
sensible  and  experienced  English  physician  who 
has  been  already  referred  to,  says : 

"  We  habitually  take  more  food  than  is  strictly 
required  for  the  demands  of  the  body ;  we  there- 
fore daily  make  more  blood  than  is  really  wanted 
for  its  support.  A  superfluity  amply  sufficient  for 
the  no  .mshment  of  the  child  is  thus  furnished — 
for  a  very  small  quantity  is  requisite — without  the 
mother,  on  the  one  hand,  feeling  the  demand  to 


TAILLESS    PARTOUIT1ON    BY    FKti/T    DIET.          83 

be  u^/»ressive,  and,  on  the  other,  without  a  five) 
indulgence  of  food  being  necessary  to  provide  it 
Natui  2  herself  corroborates  this  opinion;  indeed, 
she  so(icits  a  reduction  in  the  quantity  of  support 
rather  than  asks  an  increase  of  it ;  for  almost  the 
V*;ry  first  evidence  of  pregnancy  is  the  morning 
Biskness,  which  would  seem  to  declare  that  the  sys- 
t'jm  requires  reduction  rather  than  increase,  or  why 
should  this  subduing  process  be  instituted  ?  The 
consequences,  too,  which  inevitably  follow  the  free 
indulgence  of  a  capricious,  and  what  will  after- 
ward grow  into  a  voracious  appetite,  decidedly 
favor  this  opinion  ;  for  the  severest  and  most  trying 
cases  of  indigestion  are  by  these  means  induce-'-, 
the  general  health  of  the  female  disturbed  and 
More  or  less  impaired,  and  through  it  the  growth 
a '.id  vigor  of  the  child 

"  If  the  appetite  in  the  earlier  months,  from  the 
presence  of  morning  sickness,  is  variable  and  capri- 
cious, let  her  not  be  persuaded  to  humor  and  feed 
its  waywardness  from  the  belief  that  it  is  neces- 
sary so  to  do  ;  for  if  she  does,  she  may  depend  upon 
it,  from  such  indulgence,  it  will  soon  require  a 
larger  and  more  ample  supply  than  is  compatible 
with  her  own  health  or  that  of  her  little  one. 

"  If  the  general  health,  before  pregnancy  vaa 
delicate  and  feeble,  and,  as  a  consequence  of  t!u3 
state,  becomes  invigorated,  and  the  powers  of  diges- 
tion increase,  a  larger  supply  of  nourishment  is 


64  PARTURITION    WITHOUT    PAIN. 

demanded,  and  may  be  met  in  sucli  cast-,  without 
fear;  for  instead  of  being  injurious,  it  will  be 
nseful 

"  Lastly,  a  female,  toward  the  conclusion  of 
pregnancy,  should  be  particularly  careful  not  to  be 
persuaded  to  eat  in  the  proportion  of  two  persons, 
for  it  may  not  only  bring  on  vomiting,  heartburn, 
constipation,  etc.,  but  will  contribute,  from  the 
accumulation  of  impurities  in  the  lower  bowel,  to 
the  difficulties  of  labor." 

A  few  figures  given  by  Dr.  Dewees,  whose,  discus- 
sion of  this  subject  is  exactly  in  harmony  with  Dr. 
Bull's,  show  very  clearly  the  absurdity  of  the  idea 
that  it  is  necessary  to  "  eat  for  two."  They  are  in 
substance  as  follows : 

On  an  average,  a  new-born  child,  together  with 
all  the  accompanying  materials  expelled  at  birth, 
weighs  not  more  than  ten  pounds,  viz.,  eight 
pounds  for  the  child  itself,  and  two  pounds  for  the 
placenta,  etc.  A  table  of  7077  births  in  Paris 
gave  an  average  of  about  two  pounds  less  than 
this,  being  for  the  child  itself  just  over  six  pounds. 
Now,  a  daily  supply  of  less  than  three-quarters  of 
an  ounce,  during  the  average  two  hundred  and 
eighty  days  of  pregnancy,  will  amount  to  thia  ten 
pounds;  and  this  daily  supply  is  decidedly  lesa 
than  the  average  quantity  of  unnecessary  food 
which  is  usually  eaten.  Since,  therefore,  we  almost 
always  eat  too  much,  and  since  the  ordinary 


PAINLESS    PARTURITION    BY    FRUIT    D1E1.  65 

ph:s  is  more  than  enough  to  supply  the  require- 
ments  of  pregnancy,  and  particularly  since  tlit 
natural  symptoms  of  that  state  usually  hid. cat e 
less  food  rather  than  more,  it  is  mere  common 
sense  to  conclude  that  pregnant  women  neither 
want  nor  need  to  "  eat  for  two."  The  fact  is  more 
likely  to  be  the  seeming  paradox  that  enough  foi 
one  is  too  much  for  two  ;  i.  e.,  that  less  food  than 
usual,  rather  than  more,  is  best  during  pregnancy. 

Regularity  in  hours  of  eating  is  advantageous 
to  the  health ;  and  more  care  even  than  usual 
should  be  taken  during  pregnancy  to  observe  this 
practice.  Another  almost  or  quite  equally  impor- 
tant rule  is,  to  eat  nothing  for  four  hours,  or  at 
least  for  three  hours,  before  going  to  bed. 

Eating  should  also  be — as,  indeed,  it  should 
always  be — in  moderation.  It  should  be  deliber- 
ate, and  it  should  be  cheerful.  Deliberation  is 
almost  indispensable  to  moderation  ;  for  it  is  the 
sense  of  satisfaction  of  hunger  that  tells  us  when 
to  stop  eating,  and  this  sense  is  blunted  and  almost 
useless  when  the  food  is  swallowed  rapidly  and 
without  thorough  chewing.  And  the  appetizing 
effect  and  healthful  stimulus  of  cheerfulness  at 
meals  is  too  well  known  to  require  any  detailed 
enforcement  in  this  place, 
a* 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

THE   MINI)   DURING   GESTATION. 

THE  process  of  gestation  produces  a  kind  of 
revolution  in  the  organism  of  the  mother,  fre- 
quently of  a  very  marked  character.  This  is  some- 
times the  case  to  such  a  degree,  that  she  may 
almost  be  said  to  live  two  lives ;  one  while  she  is 
pregnant,  and  one  while  she  is  not. 

Some  women  experience  a  greatly  improved  state 
of  health  during  pregnancy,  both  bodily  and  men- 
tally. They  feel  uncommonly  activt,  strong,  gay, 
and  happy.  This  is,  however,  not  common.  It  is 
much  more  usual  for  the  mother  to  be  subject  to 
loss  of  appetite,  nausea,  and  to  other  disturbances 
of  the  stomach  and  other  internal  organs ;  to  be 
annoyed  by  low  spirits,  fancies,  and  "  longings  ;'•* 
to  be  nervous  and  irritable  ;  and  sometimes  to  be 
seriously  disordered  in  mind  for  the  time  being. 

Many  women  experience  a  good  deal  of  discom- 
fort from  their  fears  of  the  pain  of  childbirth,  and 
even  from  an  apprehension  that  they  will  not  sur- 
vive it.  Such  apprehensions  are,  of  course,  noi 
wholly  to  be  avoided ;  yet,  unless  the  assertions 
»nd  reasonings  of  the  present  work  are  thoroughlj 


THE    MIND    DURING    GESTATION.  67 

wrong,  it  is  true  that  both  the  ailments  of  preg- 
nancy and  the  danger  and  pain  of  parturition  can 
be,  in  all  ordinary  cases,  almost  entirely  done  away 
with.  And  as  for  the  danger,  even  in  the  present 
ordinary  condition  of  affairs,  where  no  efficient 
means  are  used  to  prepare  the  patient  for  labor  01 
to  carry  her  comfortably  through  it — even  now, 
the  actual  danger  of  childbirth  is  so  small,  that 
there  is  no  more  need  of  being  terrified  about  it, 
than  about  any  common  attack  of  illness.  How 
trifling  is  the  real  risk  from  childbearing  is  forcibly 
shown  in  some  laboriously  compiled  tables  in 
Duncan's  Mortality  of  Childbed  Hospitals,  which 
show  that  it  is  one  hundred  and  twenty  to  one, 
even  in  hospitals,  that  the  childbearing  woman 
will  recover.  Her  chances  are  better  than  this  in 
private  practice,  because  health,  attendance,  and 
comfort  average  better  in  private  families. 

Indeed,  it  would  be  a  strange  self-contradiction 
of  the  divinely  established  order  of  things,  if  child- 
bearing  were  such  as  to  be  actually  a  danger  to 
the  mother.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  conceive  of  a 
wise  and  kind  Creator  ordaining  death  or  danger 
as  constant  companions  in  the  individual  to  a  pro- 
cess which  is  the  very  life  of  the  species— to  sup- 
pose him  regularly  imperilling  the  life  of  that  very 
mother  whose  existence  is  all  but  indispensable  to 
her  helpless  infant. 

There  is  no  more  need  of  apprehension  about  a 


68  PARTURITION    WITHOUT   PAIN. 

painful  or  difficult  labor  than  of  the  loss  of  life ; 
for  even  under  the  ordinary  regimen  such  cases  are 
really  uncommon,  and  almost  every  one  passei 
through  the  ordeal  without  more  suffering  than 
she  can  well  endure.  Moreover,  it  is  a  well-known 
fact  that  even  where  the  pain  of  childbirth  is  great 
at  the  immediate  occasion,  yet,  owing  to  sonw 
wisely  bestowed  provision  of  nature,  the  impression 
of  it  vanishes  almost  with  the  pain  itself,  not 
leaving  the  nervous  weakness  and  dread  which 
often  make  the  memory  of  physical  suffering  a 
serious  burden  long  after  the  reality  is  over. 

Further,  setting  aside  these  general  considera- 
tions, others,  which  it  is  a  principal  object  of  thia 
little  book  to  explain,  are  additional  reasons  foi 
confidence.  One  of  these  is,  the  extraordinary 
facilitation  of  the  process  of  labor  by  the  Fruit 
Diet  system  explained  in  the  preceding  chapter; 
and  another,  the  hardly  less  assistance  which  can  be 
derived,  where  it  is  deemed  necessary  by  the  med- 
ical adviser,  from  the  use  of  anaesthetics,  as  will 
be  shown  in  a  following  chapter. 

These  brief  suggestions  must  suffice  for  the 
topic  of  anticipated  sufferings. 

Happiness,  or  at  least  content,  or  if  not,  at  any 
rate  good  humor,  is,  it  may  almost  be  said,  a  duty 
during  pregnancy.  At  any  rate,  all  the  best  author- 
ities, ancient  and  modern,  agree  in  saying  that 
the  cheerful  or  sorrowful  state  of  the  mother  is 


THE    MIND   DURING    GESTATION.  69 

often  gradually,  quietly,  and  indelibly  transferred 
to  the  disposition  of  the  child  while  yet  unborn. 
Thus  Mrs.  Gleason,  in  her  Talks  to  my  Patients* 
observes,  "  Many  times,  in  the  care  of  chronic 
invalids,  I  find  some  peculiar  tendency  to  irrita- 
bility or  mental  depression  which  I  cannot  explain, 
and  ask  if  there  was  anything  unfortunate  in  their 
mother's  constitution  previous  to  their  birth,  and 
often  receive  for  reply,  •'  I  was  an  unwelcome  child, 
and  my  mother  was  very  unhappy  in  the  prospect 
of  another  baby,  and  I,  too,  wish  I  had  never  been 
born.' " 

A  moderately  active  and  hygiemcally  correct 
way  of  living,  according  to  the  directions  in  this 
book,  will  very  greatly  promote  mental  ease  and 
comfort,  and  additional  help  can  be  derived  from 
sensible  self-control.  This,  however,  must  be  a 
habit  previously  acquired.  It  cannot  be  taken 
np  at  a  moment's  notice  by  one  previously  in 
habits  of  peevishness,  or  anger,  or  grief;  and  this 
faot  lends  additional  force  to  the  considerationa 
suggested  in  Chapter  IV.,  as  to  the  influence  of 
the  whole  previous  life  on  the  maternal  functions. 

In  discussing  this  point,  Dr.  Dewees  says,  "The 
physical  treatment  of  children  should  begin,  as  far 

*  Talks    to   my   Patients ;   Hints   on    Getting  Well   and 
Keeping  Well,  by  Mrs.  R.  B.  Gleason,  M.D.      New  York 
Wood    &    Holbrook,   Publishers.    An   excellent  and  in- 
structive work  on  l:uli<«'  health  and  its  management. 


10  PARTURITION    WITHOUT   PAIN. 

as  may  be  practicable,  with  the  earliest  formation 
of  the  embryo ;  it  will  therefore  necessarily  involve 
the  conduct  of  the  mother  even  before  her  marriage, 
as  well  as  during  the  period  of  pregnancy."  Again, 
the  same  high  authority  remarks,  "  How  especially 
essential  and  proper  are  certain  observances  of  the 
mother  during  pregnancy,  that,  she  may  insure 
desirable  dispositions  to  her  infant" 

Dr.  Dewees  thus  enumerates  the  possible  evils 
of  indulging  a  bad  temper  during  pregnancy: 

"  The  immediate  evils  which  may  result  from 
yielding  to  temper,  are  convulsions,  nervous 
inquietudes,  uterine  haemorrhage,  and  perhaps 
abortion.  Should  this  last  not  occur,  the  foetus 
may  yet  receive  such  injury  as  shall  impair  its 
natural  stamina,  and  thus  entail  upon  it  a  feeble- 
ness of  constitution  so  long  as  it  may  live.  It  is 
a  remark  long  since  made,  and  we  believe  it  to  be 
in  perfect  conformity  with  fact,  that  passionate 
and  irritable  women  are  more  prone  to  abortion 
than  those  of  an  opposite  temperament.  .  .  . 

"  Nothing  contributes  more  certainly  to  the 
safety  and  future  good  health  of  the  child  than 
cheerfulness  of  mind,  or  at  least  equanimity,  on  the 
part  of  the  mother." 

A  well-known  belief  respecting  both  the  mental 
and  physical  condition  of  women  during  gestation 
is,  that  they  are  subject  to  what  are  called  "  long 
ings,"  viz.,  desires  ft  r  some  article,  usually  of  diet, 


THE    MIND    DUKING    GESTATION.  71 

which  desires  must  be  gratified,  or  else  the  child 
when  born  will  be  found  "  marked"  with  a  spot  in 
the  similitude  of  the  things  longed  for.  Thia 
notion  is  mostly  nonsense.  Considering  that  the 
process  of  gestation  renders  the  mother  peculiarly 
liable  to  both  bodily  .and  mental  disturbances,  she 
is  justly  entitled  to  additional  care  and  kindness, 
exactly  as  any  person  is  who  is  similarly  affected 
from  whatever  cause.  Therefore,  her  wishes  should 
be  gratified  as  far  as  practicable,  even  though  they 
may  seem  unreasonable.  Where  they  are  obviously 
wrong  they  should  not  be  gratified ;  and  there 
need  be  no  fear  of  any  really  dangerous  conse- 
quences from  a  refusal.  "  Uugratified  longings," 
observes  Dewees,  "may  cause  sickness  at  the 
stomach,  temporary  loss  of  appetite,  sometimes 
vomiting ;  but  here  the  evil  ceases,  so  far  as  we  have 
observed." 

On  these  same  points  of  self-control,  of  reason- 
able indulgence,  and  effects  of  temper  and  of 
"  longing,"  Dr.  Verdi  says : 

"  It  will  do  no  harm  to  avoid  what  is  repugnant 
to  you,  but  it  may  be  detrimental  to  your  health 
to  satisfy  the  longing  for  slate-pencil,  chalk,  or 
other  deleterious  substances  which  sometimes 
women  in  your  condition  crave 

' '  But  above  all,  keep  a  cheerful  mind  and  do  not 
yield  to  grief,  jealousy,  hatred,  discontent,  or  any 
perversion  of  disposition.  It  is  true  that  your  very 


72  PAETUKITION    WITHOUT   PATN. 

coniition  makes  you  more  sensitive  and  irritable, 
still,  knowing  this,  control  your  feelings  with  all 
your  moral  strength. 

"  Your  husband  should  be  aware,  also,  that  this 
unusual  nervous  irritability  is  a  physical  conse- 
quence of  your  condition,  and  would  therefore 
be  more  indulgent  and  patient,  unless  he  is  a 
brute. 

"  If  you  believe  that  strong  impressions  upon 
the  mother's  mind  may  communicate  themselves 
to  the  foetus,  producing  marks,  deformity,  etc., 
h.ow  much  more  should  you  believe  that  irritability, 
anger,  repiniugs,  spiritual  disorders,  may  be  im- 
pressed upon  your  child's  moral  and  mental  nature, 
rendering  it  weakly  or  nervous,  passionate  or 
morose,  or  in  some  sad  way  a  reproduction  of  your 
own  evil  feelings.  And,  indeed,  this  is  more  fre- 
quently found  to  be  the  case  than  is  the  phys- 
ical marking  of  a  child  by  its  mother's  impres- 
sions." 

With  regard  to  the  belief  that  sudden  frights  or 
painful  or  startling  impressions  of  any  kind  upon 
the  mother  produce  corresponding  results  upon 
her  unborn  child,  there  is  a  conflict  of  evidence, 
bat,  it  is  believed,  with  a  decided  preponderance 
against  the  existence  of  such  liability.  The  case 
stands  somewhat  thus : 

There  are  many  accounts,  very  detailed  and 
circumstantial,  of  the  birth  of  children  with 


THE    MIND    Ul.'RING    GESTATHO.  '16 

marks  corresponding  to  the  painful  impressions 
ipon  the  mother  during  pregnancy.  These  cases 
are  to  the  same  extent  proved  as  are  casos  of 
modern  miracles  by  images  of  the  Virgin  Mary, 
many  spiritualist  phenomena,  etc.  That  is,  many 
perfectly  honest  and  respectable  people  have  be- 
lieved in  their  occurrence. 

But,  in  the  first  place,  there  is  no  nervous  con- 
nection between  the  mother  and  her  unborn  child  ; 
and  therefore  the  only  means  known  to  physiology 
by  which  sudden  impressions  can  be  transmitted 
are  absent.  Gradual  modifications,  derived  from 
the  continued  circulation  of  the  same  supply  of 
blood  through  both  bodies,  are  on  a  very  different 
footing.  Moreover,  there  are  many  recorded  cases 
of  the  occurrence  of  terrible  experiences  during 
pregnancy  without  any  ill  results  on  the  child. 
Cases  even  are  recorded  of  the  death  of  the  mother 
and  the  subsequent  birth  (though  of  course  in  a 
very  short  period)  of  a  healthy  cbild.  And  again, 
physicians  have  more  than  once  instituted  system- 
atic and  extensive  inquiries  for  authentic  in- 
stances of  "mother's  marks"  without  finding  even 
one.  Such  was  the  well-known  investigation  of 
the  celebrated  English  surgeon,  Dr.  William 
Hunter,  who  carried  his  observations  through  two 
thousand  consecutive  caxes  of  childbirth  at  a  lying- 
in  hospital  to  which  he  was  attached.  In  every  one 
of  these,  as  soon  as  the  woman  was  delivered,  he 
7 


74  PA.RTUBITION    WITHOUT   PAIN. 

asked  if  she  had  been  disappointed  of  anything 
she  had  longed  for,  and  if  so,  what  it  w» ;  also,  if 
ghe  had  been  suddenly  shocked  or  surprised  in  any 
way,  and  how ;  or  frightened  by  any  unsightly  or 
horrid  object,  and  what  The  answer  in  each  case 
he  regularly  noted  down,  and  he  then  inspected 
the  child  ;  and  he  never  in  any  single  instance  met 
with  a  coincidence.  He  found  blemishes  where  no 
cause  was  acknowledged,  and  found  none  where 
some  cause  was  given ;  but  absolutely  nothing  to 
support  the  belief. 

Dr.  Dewees,  who  quoted  Dr.  Hunter's  experi- 
ments and  other  authorities,  states  his  conclusion 
thus : 

"  Nor  do  we  believe  in  the  influence  of  the  "  imag- 
ination" upon  either  the  form,  color,  or  future 
destiny  of  the  child,  however  powerfully  this 
faculty  may  have  been  exerted  during  gestation. 
We  entirely  reject  all  the  reasoning,  as  well  as  the 
appeals  to  facts  supposed  to  be  illustrative  of  this 
wonderful  influence.  We  have,  ever  since  our 
commencement  in  business,  been  attentive  to  this 
subject,  and  we  can  most  conscientiously  declare  we 
have  'never,  in  a  single  instance,  had  reason  to 
believe  the  imagination  had  exerted  the  slightest 
control,  though  contrary  to  our  early  belief  upon 
(his  subject" 

It  is  comfortable,  where  there  is  evidence  on  both 
Bides,  to  find  that  the  most  agreeable  dextrine  is  at 


THE    MIND    DURING    GESTATION.  7B 

any  rate  well  enough  supported  to  justify  a  belief 
in  it  by  anybody  \s  ho  prefers  it. 

The  most  extreme  views  thus  far  put  forth 
respecting  the  mental  perversions  resulting  from 
pregnancy  are  those  of  Dr.  Storer,  in  his  Reflex, 
Insanity  in  Women.  In  this  work  Dr.  Storer 
shosvs  the  well-known,  intimate,  and  powerfully 
sympathetic  connection  between  the  uterus  and  its 
associated  organs,  and  the  brain  ;  and  he  proceeds 
to  arrange  many  of  the  phenomena  of  pregnancy  in 
a  manner  admitting  of  a  scale  of  intensity  or 
importance,  from  headache,  irritability,  low  spirits, 
and  difficulty  of  self-control,  through  such  phe- 
nomena as  a  morbidly  extravagant  love  of  pets, 
longings,  etc.,  up  to  such  manifestations  as  an 
irresistible  impulse  to  steal  (kleptomania),  and 
even  to  actual  temporary  insanity;  and  he  even 
argues  that  women  ought  not  to  be  punished  for 
crimes-  committed  during  pregnancy.  This  may 
be  just,  but  if  so,  it  is  equally  unavoidable  that 
women  during  pregnancy  must  be  so  kept  that 
they  cannot  commit  crimes. 

Dr.  Storer's  discussion  is  even  painfully  inter- 
esting, though  the  limitations  which  would  be 
applied  by  a  full  handling  of  the  question  would 
remove  the  first  unqualified  impression  of  terror ; 
fcr  to  argue  that  insanity,  or  at  least  irresistible 
immoral  impulse,  is  a  condition  of  pregnancy,  is 
Uttla  better  than  arguing  that  death  is  a  condition 


76  PARTURITION    WITHOUT   PAIN. 

of  it  No  such  consequences  ensue  except  i; 
exceptional  cases;  and  those  where  real  and  im- 
portant danger  exists  are  still  fewer. 

Yet  tin  undoubted  existence  of  such  extreme 
cases,  notwithstanding  their  fewness,  lends  great 
force  to  the  views  expressed  in  this  chapter  upon 
the  existence  of  a  disturbed  condition  of  the  mind, 
or  at  least  of  a  liability  to  such  disturbance,  during 
gestation,  and  to  the  suggestions  made  for  con- 
trolling such  disturbance. 

To  recapitulate  and  complete  the  suggestions  of 
this  chapter : 

Be  even-tempered  and  good-natured ;  remember 
that  the  transfer  of  your  habitual  states  of  mind 
or  body  to  your  child  is  substantially  certain. 

Avoid  horrid  and  uncomfortable  sights  and 
stories.  It  does  no  harm  to  avoid  them,  and  it 
avoids  discomfort  if  not  danger.  If  they  are 
encountered,  however,  remember  that  they  have 
millions  of  times  been  encountered  without  harm; 
that  there  is  not  the  least  certainty  of  their  doing 
harm ;  that  there  is  much  more  evidence,  indeed, 
that  they  cannot  do  harm  than  that  they  can. 

Have  whatever  you  can  get  that  is  harmless, 
that  you  want.  If  it  is  harmful,  go  without  it; 
if  you  cannot  get  it,  io  the  same,  and  think  of 
something  else. 

Understand  that  your  unreasonable  fancies  and 
impulses  are  temporary;  superficial,  so  to  speak, 


1'HE    ItlNt    DURING    GESTATION.  7'T 

and  not  real ;  and  use  the  same  good  sense  and 
self-control  about  them  that  you  should  do  in 
managing  your  temper  and  impulses  at  all  times. 
It  is  a  received  truth  that  even  actual  lunatics  are 
capable  of  a  great  degree  of  self-control,  and  that 
its  exercise  is  an  important  element  in  their  cure. 
Much  more  will  it  be  found  efficient  in  the  govern- 
ment of  such  mental  irregularities  as  arise  from 
a  condition  which  is  in  its  own  nature  perfectly 
natural  and  perfectly  healthful. 

Enlist  the  sympathy  and  aid  of  your  husband, 
of  your  physician,  and  of  such  other  close  and  con- 
fidential friends  as  you  may  possess. 

Let  your  love  for  your  own  baby  reinforce  your 
resolution  to  adhere  to  such  a  line  of  behavior  as 
is  best. 

Lastly,  reflect  that  philosophy  may  teach  you 
that  it  is  useless  and  foolish  to  allow  yourself 
to  torment  yourself  over  whatever  you  find  you 
cannot  help;  that  not  only  selfishness,  but  jus- 
tice and  decency  and  love  call  on  you  to  act  as 
is  sensible  and  right,  for  your  own  sake,  for 
the  sake  of  your  husband  and  your  friends, 
and  for  the  sake  of  your  own  baby ;  and  if  yoii 
ar?  so  happy  as  to  possess  a  living  religious  faith, 
use  that.  It  is  given  you  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  helping  out  your  lower  motives  whero 
they  are  feeble,  and  where  they  disappear,  of 
1* 


78  PARTURITION    WITHOUT    PAIN. 

affording  you  a  clear  and    practicable  path   foi 
thought  and  action. 

Make  a  proper  use  of  that  set  of  motives,  and 
no  place  is  left  for  the  mental  disturbances  of 
pregnancy  to  do  any  great  harm. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    AILMENTS   OE   PREGNANCY. 

THOSE  ailments  to  which  pregnant  women  are 
liable  are,  most  of  them,  inconveniences  rather  than 
diseases,  although  they  may  sometimes  be  aggra- 
vated to  a  degree  of  real  danger.  Arising  as  they 
do  from  the  temporary  physical  condition  of  the 
organism,  what  they  require  is  not  such  medical 
treatment  as  may  be  needed  for  a  true  disease,  but 
rather  a  general  hygienic  regimen ;  and  for  a 
similar  reason,  while  on  one  hand  it  may  not  be 
possible  to  remove  them  entirely,  yet  on  the  other 
they  can  almost  always  be  greatly  alleviated. 

In  general,  therefore,  it  may  be  first  observed 
that  such  a  way  of  living  as  shall  maintain  and 
elevate  the  standard  of  general  physical  and  mental 
health  will  of  course  increase  the  power  of  resist- 
ing and  surmounting  all  ailments  whatever. 
Accordingly,  the  two  chief  instrumentalities  toward 
that  end  which  are  urged  in  this  book,  namely, 
the  judicious  use  of  baths,  and  the  fruit  diet 
system,  may  be  confidently  relied  upon  to  greatly 
diminish  the  discomforts  incident  to  the  period  of 
pregnancy. 

It,  may,  however,  be  useful  to  briefly  enumerate 


80  PARTURITION    WITHOUT    PAIN. 

the  difficulties,  not  which  every  pregnant  woman 
must  have,  by  any  means,  but  one  or  more  of 
which  different  women  are  liable  to  experience. 
What  has  been  before  recommended  on  genera] 
principles  in  the  previous  chapters  is  here  implied 
of  course.  The  suggestions  in  this  chapter  are 
not  intended  to  furnish  a  substitute  for  the  advice 
of  a  physician,  but  to  give  directions  for  cases  that 
do  not  require  his  attendance.  As  is  repeatedly 
remarked  under  the  various  heads  that  follow,  he 
should  be  called  in  promptly  where  the  case  is  at 
all  serious ;  and,  under  the  peculiar  circumstance? 
of  pregnancy,  it  is  probably  good  sense  to  call  him 
too  often  rather  than  too  seldom.  By  a  good  un- 
derstanding with  your  physician  you  can  almost 
always  induce  him  to  prescribe  for  you  only  hy- 
gienic remedies  rather  than  poisonous  drugs.  There 
are  multitudes  of  doctors  who  would  give  very  few 
medicines  did  not  their  patients  demand  them. 

Sickness  at  the  stomach  at  rising  in  the  morning 
or  at  eating. — This  is  usually  irost  annoying  in 
the  first  months  of  pregnancy.  After  quickening, 
it  usually  disappears  or  diminishes.  Sometimes  it 
only  happens  during  the  latter  months,  or  reap- 
pears at  that  time,  and  then  continues  until 
delivery  or  a  few  days  before  it.  In  this  last  case, 
viz.,  of  the  latter  months,  it  will  be  best  to  con- 
sult a  physician  if  there  be  vc  'iting  to  such  an 
extent  as  to  be  troublesome. 


THE    AILMENTS    OF    PREGNANCY.  81 

In  the  first  case,  much  is  to  be  expected  from 
the  general  regimen  herein  prescribed  for  bodj 
and  mind.  In  case  of  nausea  on  getting  out  of 
bed,  the  evil  may  sometimes  be  cheated  by  lying 
comfortably  in  bed  while  you  eat  breakfast.  Swal- 
lowing a  very  little  pounded  ice  will  sometimes 
give  relief,  and  so  will  a  cold  wet  compress  over 
the  stomach.  If  these  fail,  try  hot  fomentations 
over  the  same  region,  continued  for  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes,  and  to  be  followed  by  wearing  a  wet 
girdle. 

If  any  particular  kind  of  food  is  "  longed"  for, 
it  is  more  likely  to  be  retained.  So  is  an  unex- 
pected article  of  food.  Where  the  retention  of 
food  is  particularly  difficult,  some  concentrated 
form  of  nourishment  may  be  used,  as  beef  tea, 
calf's  foot  jelly,  etc.,  as  its  small  bulk  is  less  liable 
to  excite  the  irritability  of  the  stomach. 

There  is  much  reason  for  believing  that  this 
"  morning-sickness"  is  not  a  necessary  accompani- 
ment of  healthful  pregnancy,  but  due,  in  great 
measure  at  least,  to  such  conditions  of  modern 
civilized  life  as  may  be  effectively  varied  in  .such 
a  way  as  to  escape  it.  If,  however,  the  decisive 
change  of  regimen  which  would  happen  to  most 
women  by  the  adoption  of  the  fruit  diet  and  bath 
method  be  not  adopted,  the  nausea  must  be  put 
np  with. 

fterattf/cd  appetite.  —  "  Longings"  have  been  dis- 


82  PARTURITION    WITHOUT   PAIK. 

ensued.  Where  the  appetite  fails,  let  the  patient 
go  without  eating  for  a  little  while,  say  for  two  or 
three  meals.  If,  however,  the  strength  begins  to 
go.  try  the  offering  of  some  unexpected  delicacy  ; 
or  give  small  quantities  of  nourishing  food,  as  di- 
rected in  case  of  nausea. 

Flatulence  and  colic. — Eat  in  small  quantities 
and  often,  instead  of  rarely  and  largely ;  and  eat 
nothing  for  three  or  four  hours  before  bedtime. 
Chew  thoroughly.  These  directions  are  because 
these  ailments  usually  come  from  bad  digestion. 
Sometimes  drinking  a  tumbler  of  warm  water  will 
bring  on  vomiting  and  relief  from  wind ;  if  in  the 
Jower  bowels,  an  injection  of  warm  water  may 
relieve. 

Heartburn. — To  be  prevented  by  right  living. 
In  particular,  let  magnesia,  chalk,  or  other  alkalies 
be  avoided,  and  try  a  day's  fasting,  and  another 
day's  very  small  eating.  A  very  severe  heartburn 
will  often  be  relieved  by  drinking  rapidly  several 
tumblers  of  blood-warm  soft  water,  so  as  to  vomit 
easily.  Those,  however,  who  adopt  a  proper  regi- 
men are  not  likely  to  have  heartburn. 

Constipation. — For  this  common  and  trouble- 
Home  disorder  of  pregnancy,  the  fruit  diet  and 
healthy  exercise  are  the  best  preventives.  Injec- 
tions of  tepid  water  will  often  facilitate  evacuation. 
A  physician  should  always  be  consulted  before  the 
case  becomes  serious.  The  fruit  diet  and  oxer- 


THE    ULMENTS    OF    PREGNANCY.  83 

Rising  regimen  may  sometimes  be  reinfc/ccd  by 
drinking  a  glass  of  water  just  before  going  to 
bed,  or  by  eating  an  orange  before  breakfast.  This 
difficulty  is  much  more  easily  prevented  than 
cured ;  and  it  is  the  more  indispensable  to  pro- 
vide against  it,  since  it  tends  directly  and  power- 
fully to  bring  on  a  train  of  painful  and  dangerous 
consequences,  resulting  in  headache,  palpitation, 
and  perhaps  piles,  inflammation  of  the  bowels,  and 
even  miscarriage. 

Diarrhoea. — This  may  be  a  result  of  constipa- 
tion, the  watery  discharge  being  secreted  by  the 
lining  of  the  bowels  in  the  effort  to  discharge  the 
compacted  waste  matter.  The  tepid  sitz-bath, 
with  injections  of  small  quantities  of  cool  water, 
together  with  lying  quietly  on  the  back,  will 
generally  remove  the  difficulty.  This,  with  a 
proper  regimen,  will  in  all  probability  either  pre- 
vent it  or  cure  it.  Care  should  be  taken  to  keep 
the  abdomen  warm  by  proper  clothing. 

Piles. — For  cases  of  significance  consult  a  physi- 
cian. As  with  constipation,  so  with  piles,  its  fre- 
quent result ;  fruu  diet,  exercise,  and  sitz-bath  regi- 
men will  do  much  to  prevent  the  trouble.  Frequent 
local  applications  of  a  cold  compress,  and  even  of 
ice,  and  tepid  water  injections,  are  of  great  service. 
Walking  or  standing  aggravate  this  complaint; 
Ijing  down  alleviates  it.  Dr.  Shew  says,  "  There 
id  nothing  in  the  world  that  will  produce  <?o  great 


84  PARTURITION    WITHOUT   PAIN. 

relief  in  piles  as  fasting.  If  the  fit  is  severe,  Irve 
a  whole  day,  or  even  two,  if  necessary,  upon  pure, 
soft  cold  water  alone.  Give  then  very  lightly  of 
vegetable  food." 

Toothache. — There  is  a  sort  of  proverb  that  a 
woman  loses  one  tooth  every  time  she  has  a  child. 
Neuralgic  toothache  during  pregnancy  is,  at  any 
rate,  extremely  common,  and  often  has  to  be  en- 
dured. It  is  generally  thought  not  best  to  have 
teeth  extracted  during  pregnancy,  as  the  shock  to 
the  nervous  system  has  sometimes  caused  miscar- 
riage. To  wash  out  the  mouth  morning  and 
night  with  cold  or  lukewarm  water  and  salt  is 
often  of  use.  If  the  teeth  are  decayed,  consult  a 
good  dentist  in  the  early  stages  of  pregnancy,  and 
have  the  offending  teeth  properly  dressed.  Good 
dentists,  in  the  present  state  of  the  science,  ex- 
tract very  few  teeth,  but  save  them. 

Salivation. — Excessive  secretion  of  the  saliva 
has  usually  been  reckoned  substantially  incurable. 
Fasting,  cold  water  treatment,  exercise,  and  fruit 
diet  may  be  relied  upon  to  prevent,  cure,  or  alle- 
viate it,  where  this  is  possible,  as  it  frequently  is. 

Headache. — This  is,  perhaps,  almost  as  common 
in  cases  of  pregnancy  as  "  morning  sickness."  It 
may  be  from  determination  of  blood  to  the  head, 
from  constipation  or  indigestion,  constitutional 
"  sick  headache,"  from  neuralgia,  from  a  cold,  from 
rheumatism.  Correct  living  will  prevent  much 


TJIK    AILMENTS    OF    I'K  ICGNANCY.  86 

headache  trouble  ;  and  where  this  does  not  answer 
the  purpose,  rubbing  and  making  magnetic  passes 
over  the  head  by  the  hand  of  some  healthy  mag- 
netic person  will  often  prove  of  great  service. 

Jaundice. — See  the  doctor. 

"Liver  spots." — These,  on  the  face,  must  prob- 
ably be  endured,  as  no  trustworthy  way  of  driving 
them  off  is  known. 

Itching. — A  wash,  or  injection,  of  castile  soap 
and  water,  of  borax  and  water,  or  of  water  contain- 
ing aromatic  spirits  of  ammonia  at  two  teaspoonfuls 
to  a  tumbler,  or  of  water  containing  say  fifteen 
grains  of  benzoic  acid  to  half  a  pint,  will  com- 
monly be  effective.  Solicitous  cleanliness  is  the 
first  requisite,  and  this,  with  no  other  treatment 
except  cold  hip-baths,  and  if  necessary  even  ice, 
would  probably  answer  the  purpose. 

Pain  in  the  right  side. — This  is  liable  to  occur 
from  about  tbe  fifth  to  the  eighth  month,  and  is 
attributed  to  the  pressure  of  the  enlarging  womb 
upon  the  liver.  Proper  living  is  most  likely  to 
alleviate  it.  Wearing  a  wet  girdle  in  daytime  or  a 
wet  compress  at  night,  sitz-baths,  and  friction 
with  the  wet  hand,  may  also  be  tried.  If  the  pain 
is  severe  a  mustard  poultice  may  be  used.  Exercise 
should  be  carefully  moderated  if  found  to  increase 
the  pain.  If  there  is  fever  and  inflammation  with 
it,  consult  a  physician.  It  is  usually  not  dangerous, 
but  uncomfortable  only. 
8 


86  pAtttfimmoN  WITHOUT  PAIN. 


of  the  heart.  —  To  be  prevented  by 
healthj  living  and  calm  good  humor.  Lying 
down  \viil  often  gradually  relieve  it,  so  will  a 
compress  v^t  witn  water  as  hot  as  can  be  borne 
placed  ovo*  ihe  heart  and  renewed  as  often  as  it 
jets  cool. 

Fainting  —  Most  hkely  to  be  caused  by  "quick- 
»*ning,"  or  el^  by  tight  dress,  bad  air,  over-exertion, 
(*T  other  unhealthy  living.  It  is  not  often  dan- 
gerous. Lay  the  patient  in  an  easy  posture,  the 
head  rather  low  than  high,  and  where  cool  air 
may  blow  across  the  face;  loosen  the  dress  if 
tight  ;  sprinkle  cold  water  on  the  face  and  hands. 

Sleeplessness.  —  Most  likely  to  be  caused  b}'  incor- 
rect living,  and  to  be  prevented  and  cured  by  the 
opposite.  A  glass  or  two  of  cold  water  drunk 
deliberately  at  going  to  bed  often  helps  one  go 
to  sleep;  so  does  bathing  the  face  and  hands 
and  the  feet  in  cold  water.  A  short  nap  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  forenoon  can  sometimes  be  had, 
and  is  of  use.  Such  a  nap  ought  not  to  be  too  long, 
or  it  leaves  a  heavy  feeling;  it  should  be  sought 
with  the  mind  in  a  calm  state,  in  a  well-venti- 
lated though  darkened  room,  and  with  the 
clothing  removed,  as  at  night.  A  similar  nap  in 
the  afternoon  is  not  so  good,  but  is  better  than 
nothing.  The  tepid  sitz-bath  on  goiug  to  bed 
will  often  produce  sleep,  and  eo  will  gentle  per- 
cussion given  by  an  attendant  with  the  palms  of 


THE    AILMENTS    OF    PREGNANCY.  87 

the  hand  over  the  back  for  a  few  minutes  on 
retiring.  To  secure  sound  sleep  do  not  read,  write, 
or  ssverely  tax  the  mind  in  the  evening. 

Abortion. — This  has  been  discussed,  as  far  as 
epace  permitted,  in  Chapter  II. 

Swelled  feet  and  hands. — Correct  living,  wash- 
ing with  cold  water,  and  frequent  lying  down, 
are  palliatives  for  this  difficulty.  It  is  not 
dangerous,  and  it  usually  ceases  with  childbirth. 
If  there  are  symptoms  of  its  spreading  to  the 
whole  system,  consult  a  physician.  Friction  upon 
the  limbs,  applied  upward,  while  they  are  lifted 
upon  a  chair  or  couch,  is  sometimes  of  use,  and 
the  skin  may  be  rubbed  with  sweet-oil  or  glycerine 
if  it  becomes  painfully  distended.  Relief  has  been 
given  by  the  use  of  a  roller  or  broad  bandage  round 
the  limbs  affected. 

Swelling  or  pain  in  the  breast. — See  that  the 
dress  is  loose  so  as  to  allow  the  natural  enlarge- 
ment of  the  bosom.  Wear  a  wet  bandage ;  if  there 
be  pain  of  a  spasmodic  kind  foment  with  warm 
water. 

Cramps. — If  in  the  legs,  to  rise  and  walk  about 
will  often  quickly  remove  them.  Friction  with 
the  hand  is  of  use. 

Varicose  veins. — Wear  a  laced  or  elastic  stock* 
ing.  If  this  is  not  to  be  had,  apply  carefully  and 
snugly  a  roller  or  broad  bandage  of  cotton  cloth, 
from  the  toes  upward,  swathing  and  compressing 


88  PARTURITION    WITHOUT   PAIN. 

the  leg  to  a  point  above  the  distended  veins.  Keep 
the  legs  horizontal  as  much  as  possible.  Cold 
water,  wet  bandages,  and  hand  friction  miy  !:« 
tried. 

Rigidity  of  the  skin. — This  sometimes  occasions 
a  good  deal  of  distress  in  the  region  of  the  abdomen. 
Kubbing  with-sweet  oil  or  glycerine  is  useful.  If 
the  skin  over  the  abdomen  is  made  tough  and 
healthy  by  proper  gentle  friction  before  pregnancy 
has  far  advanced,  most  of  the  suffering  will  be 
avoided. 

Mental  disturbances. — These  include  nervous 
irritability,  despondency,  hysteric,  and,  in  rare  and 
extreme  cases,  loss  of  mental  balance,  and  even 
actual  temporary  insanity.  Enough  has  been  said 
on  these  subjects  in  Chapter  VIII.  It  is  believed 
that  the  suggestions  there  given  afford  satisfac- 
tory means  of  preventing  any  avoidable  trouble 
from  this  source. 

Leucorrhcea. — Frequent  washings,  and  injections 
of  blood- warm  suds  of  castile  soap  are  useful. 
Allay  itching  by  washing  with  water  in  which  one 
grain  of  carbolic  acid  to  an  ounce  of  water  has 
been  dissolved, 

Miscarriage. — See  Chapter  II.  on  this  subject. 

False  pains,  neuralgic  and  other  pains. — Pains 
somewhat  like  labor-pains  sometimes  occur  during 
the  last  one  or  two  months  of  pregnancy.  They 
may  be  distinguished  from  the  real  ones,  however, 


THE    AILMENTS    OF    PREGNANCY.  89 

t,f  laying  the  hand  on  the  abdomen.  In  the  false 
pain,  the  womb  does  not  contract  and  grow  hard 
under  the  hand. 

Similar  pains  may  occur  from  rheumatism  of 
the  womb.  This  may  be  known  by  the  excessive 
sensitiveness  of  the  abdomen,  which  becomes 
unable  to  endure  the  least  pressure  of  the  hand, 
or  even  the  weight  of  the  clothes.  Consult  a  phy- 
sician in  this  case.  A  silk  wrapper  next  the  body 
is  often  a  great  relief. 

Various  temporary  or  wandering  pains  are  often 
felt  in  the  back,  abdomen,  or  legs.  These  are  the 
result  of  nervous  irritability,  or  perhaps  of  colic, 
and  are  only  troublesome,  not  dangerous. 

Womb  displacements. — For  such  occurrences,  and 
in  case  of  the  discharge  known  as  "  false  waters," 
be  quiet,  and  send  for  your  physician. 

Paralysis,  amanrosis,  deafness. — Pregnant  wo- 
men are  sometimes  seized  with  partial  paralysis, 
with  amaurosis,  or  loss  of  sight  from  paralytic 
affection  of  the  optic  nerve,  and  with  deafness  of  a 
similar  kind.  As  the  physician  -will  say,  they  are 
temporary  affections,  and  may  be  expected  to  dis- 
appear after  childbirth. 

Convulsions. — Call  your  physiciac.  In  the  mean 
time,  the  application  of  cold  water  to  the  head,  and 
of  hot  water  to  the  legs,  is  all  that  need  be  tried. 

Mechanical  inconveniences. — Th<"  inconvenience 
wising  from  the  enlargement  of  the 
8* 


90  PARTURITION   WITHOUT   PAIN 

region  may  sometimes  be  eased  to  some  extent  by 
wearing  a  broad  belt  with  an  adjustable  lacing 
behind.  It  should  be  next  the  skin,  and  taken  off 
at  night. 

Retention  or  incontinence  of  urine  will  be 
guarded  against  as  far  as  possible  by  a  correct  way 
of  living.  Consult  a  physician  at  once,  especially 
in  case  of  retention,  which  quickly  becomes  dan- 
gerous. Great  care  should  be  taken  to  secure  the 
natural  evacuations  regularly,  and  at  any  otter 
rime  when  the  desire  is  felt 


CHAPTER  X. 

ANESTHETICS  ;   FEMALE   PHYSICIAN'S. 

ON  the  question  of  preventing  the  pains  of 
childbirth  by  the  administration  of  anaesthetics, 
there  is  a  conflict  of  evidence,  but,  it  is  believed, 
with  a  great  preponderance  in  favor  of  the  practice 
where  the  pain  is  likely  to  do  more  harm  to  the 
nervous  system  than  the  ansesthetic  could  possi- 
bly do.  In  cases  where  the  patient  is  robust,  the 
labor  likely  to  be  short,  and  the  suffering  light, 
it  is  of  course  advisable  to  avoid  the  use  of  anaes- 
thetics. 

The  chief  objection  urged  is  in  substance  that 
the  effect  of  chloroform  (the  only  anaesthetic  which 
is  meant  in  this  chapter;  as  the  others,  mixtures 
of  chloroform  with  ether  or  other  substances,  and 
also  nitrous  oxide,  hydrate  of  chloral,  etc.,  are  not 
recommended  in  the  present  state  of  medical 
experience  of  them)  is  to  so  modify  the  constitu 
ents  of  the  blood  as  to  impede  recovery  and  increase 
the  liability  to  various  bad  sequences  of  labor.  A 
theological  objection  has  been  made,  viz.,  that 
God  meant  childbirth  to  be  painful,  and  that  it  ia 
wicked  to  try  to  ease  it.  To  this  it  is  sufficient  to 


92  PAETUEITTON   WITHOUT   PAIN. 

reply  that  no  woman  is  known  to  have  made  this 
objection,  and  that  any  man  who  chooses  to  under- 
go the  agony  that  has  heretofore  too  often  accom- 
panied childbirth  without  anaesthetics,  should  be 
made  welcome  to  do  so. 

In  the  mean  while,  all  that  it  is  necessary  to 
remark  here  is,  that  Sir  James  Y.  Simpson,  the 
celebrated  Edinburgh  surgeon  who  discovered  the 
anaesthetic  use  of  chloroform,  and  many  other 
eminent  surgeons  after  him,  have  used  it  literally 
in  hundreds  of  thousands  of  cases  of  surgical 
operations  and  childbirth,  with  at  least  as  little 
Hurm  as  for  instance  attends  a  similar  number  of 
cases  of  travelling  by  railroad  and  steamboat.  A 
few  quotations  from  medical  authorities  will  serve 
to  show  what  conclusions  physicians  come  to  from 
their  own  experience  and  observation  of  the  use 
of  chloroform. 

As  regards  the  safety  of  its  administration  in 
surgical  cases,  the  following  remarks  by  Dr.  J.  A. 
Otis  embody  statistics  of  immense  significance  : 

"  You  know  well  the  history  of  the  use  of  chlo- 
roform in  the  Crimean  and  Italian  campaigns, 
where  it  was  employed  without  a  single  disaster ; 
and  I  am  informed  by  Langenbeck  and  Stromeyer 
that  a  similar  result  attended  the  seven  weeks' 
Austro-Prussian  war.  In  our  own  unhappy  strug- 
gle chloroform  was  administered  in  more  than  one 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand  cases,  and  I  air 


ANAESTHETICS;  FEMAIE  PHYSICIANS.          93 

unable  to  learn  of  more  than  eight  cases  in  which 
a  fatal  result  can  be  fairly  traceable  to  its  use." 

Dr.  Tilt  says,  of  the  use  of  chloroform  in 
labor : 

"  In  our  own  time  the  sting  1  as  been  taken  from 
the  curse  (of  pain)  by  the  discovery  of  chloroform, 
for  which  one  of  our  greatest  men  will  ever  rank 
next  to,  if  not  before,  the  discoverer  of  vaccina- 
tion." 

Dr.  W.  P.  Johnston  says,  in  speaking  of  Sir  J.  Y. 
Simpson : 

"  Throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  this 
great  American  Union  there  is  not  a  single  well- 
educated  physician,  I  will  venture  to  assert,  who 
is  not  prepared  to  unite  with  me  in.  the  declaration 
that  this  branch  (obstetrics)  of  the  healing  art  is 
immensely  indebted  to  thai  great  discoverer  of  the 
anaesthetic  properties  of  chloroform,  for  the  evi- 
dence he  afforded  of  its  safety  and  beneficial  effects 
in  many  cases  of  natural  labor,  but  especially  for 
its  inestimable  value  in  obstetrical  operations." 

Dr.  H.  R.  Storer,  until  he  relinquished  midwifery 
practice,  "  made  it  his  rule  always  to  administer 
chloroform  to  parturient  patients,  and  this  no 
matter  whether  the  labor  was  a  rapid  one  or  no  or 
whether  the  patient  had  or  had  not  organic  disease 
of  the  heart  or  lungs;  believing,  as  he  did,  that 
not  only  was  it  the  physician's  duty  to  relieve 
pain,  here  ordinarily  so  exquisite,  and  to  lessen  thf 


94  PARTUJLUT10JS    WITHOUT    PAIN. 

risk  to  both  mother  and  child,  as  was  done  by  the 
relaxation  of  voluntary  muscles  effected  by  the 
anaesthetic,  but  that  for  certain  manifest  reasons 
chloroform  was  preferable  for  obstetric  use  to 
ether." 

Dr.  Beatty,  in  his  Contributions  to  Medicine  and 
Midwifery,  says : 

"  Its  employment,  when  properly  conducted"  (Dr., 
Beatty's  italics),  "is  not  attended  with  any  inju- 
rious effects  upon  either  mother  or  child.  I  have 
never  seen  any  unpleasant  result  from  it,  and  I 
believe  that  out  of  the  many  thousand  cases  in 
which  this  agent  has  been  employed  in  parturition, 
not  a  single  case  of  death  has  occurred  from  its 
use." 

In  a  subsequent  paper,  two  years  afterward,  Dr. 
B.  said,  referring  to  the  above  statement : 

"  Since  that  time  I  have  continued  to  use  chloro- 
form very  extensively,  and  with  the  happiest  results. 
I  have  given  it  to  every  patient  who  desired  to  have 
it,  unless  I  saw  some  good  reason  to  refuse.  I  have 
not  pressed  it  upon  any,  and  rejoice,  at  the  end  of 
two  years  additional  experience,  to  be  able  to  state 
that  in  all  cases  its  use  has  been  productive  of  the 
greatest  relief  and  happiness,  and  that  in  no  case 
has  anything  unpleasant  occurred  to  either  mother 
or  child  during  its  administration,  or  subsequent 
to  delivery.  ...  It  will  be  easily  imagined  that 
my  confidence  tn  the  power  of  the  agent  hat 


ANESTHETICS  ;    FEMALE    PHYSICIANS.  9fl 

increased  with  my  experience,  and  I  now  ieel 
distressed  when  obliged  to  witness  the  sufferings 
of  a  patient,  prolonged,  perhaps,  in  a  first  case  for 
hours,  when  I  have  the  power  to  alleviate  hei 
agony,  and  (without  for  a  moment  interfering  with 
her  consciousness)  to  render  her  labor  a  '  pleasure,' 
'  happiness,'  or  '  heaven,' — phrases  which  have 
been  frequently  made  use  of  to  me  by  patients  ta 
whom  chloroform  has  been  administered." 

The  following  details,  given  by  Dr.  Beatty  of  a 
case  where  the  patient  was  during  four  honra 
under  the  influence  of  chloroform,  will  be  found 
interesting : 

"The  nurse  (the  delivery  being  accomplished) 
was  sitting  at  the  fire  with  the  infant  in  her  arms, 
without  the  mother  being  in  the  slightest  degree 
conscious  of  what  had  taken  place  ;  and  in  about 
five  minutes  afterward  the  lady  turned  around  in 
bed  and  said  to  me,  '  Do  you  think  it  will  be  soon 
over  ?'  I  replied,  '  Don't  you  know  that  the  child 
is  born  ?'  and  I  will  never  forget  the  expression 
of  her  countenance  when  she  said,  'Now,  don't 
deceive  me,  but  tell  me  truly,  shall  I  soon  be 
well?'  In  short,  it  was  not  until  the  child  was 
placed  in  the  bed  with  her  thirt  she  could  o? 
made  to  believe  that  her  delivery  had  been  accom- 
plished, and  she  then  declared  most  solemnly  that 
she  had  not  the  slightest  idea  till  that  moment 

what  had  taken  place." 


00  PARTURITION    \\ITIIOUT    PAIN. 

It  is  true  that  thorough  precautions  must  be 
employed  in  the  use  of  this  medical  agent.  Dr. 
Beatty  insists  emphatically  upon  the  necessity  of 
using  a  pure  article,  of  its  being  taken  upon  an 
empty  stomach,  and  in  a  horizontal  attitude.  He 
doubtless  thought  it  superfluous  to  add  what  ia 
the  chief  requisite  of  all  for  non-professional  per- 
sons— it  should  never  be  taken  except  when  a 
thoroughly  competent  physician  superintends  the 
ivhole  administration  and  all  the  effects  of  it. 

Lastly,  the  fruit  diet  and  the  accompanying 
regimen  recommended  in  this  book  will  be  found 
in  most  cases  to  do  away  with  the  necessity  of  any 
anaesthetic,  by  the  prevention  of  the  pain. 

As  regards  the  employment  of  female  physi- 
cians, it  is  apprehended  that  few  will  deny  that, 
other  things  being  equal,  a  female  physician  should 
deal  with  female  patients. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  introduction  of 
the  employment  of  professional  obstetric  surgeons 
instead  of  uneducated  midwives,  between  two  and 
three  centuries  ago,  was  a  great  advance  in  the 
medical  art.  But  the  employment  of  skilled  female 
assistance  is  another  great  advance  ;  and  reason  and 
public  opinion  both  point  toward  the  conclusion 
here  stated.  Only,  it  should  b-3  remembered,  othe* 
things  should  be  equal.  The  female  physician 
should  be  as  thoroughly  trained,  as  skillful,  and  aa 
competent,  as  the  male  physician.  That  being  the 


ANAESTHETICS  ,'   FEMALE    PHYSICIANS.  G'i 

ease,  it  is  impossible  not  to  perceive  how  immense 
a  relief  to  the  feelings  it  must  be — and  therefore  to 
the  physical  condition — to  be  able  to  depend  upon  a 
person  of  the  patient's  own  sex. 


SUMM  ART. 

PAIKLESS  parturition  may  be  secured  by  attention 
to  the  following  points  during  pregnancy  (besides 
correct  previous  bringing  up,  moral,  mental,  and 
physical) : 

Moderate  healthful  exercise,  and  avoidance  of 
shocks,  fatigue,  and  over-exertion. 

Comfortable  or  at  least  quiet  and  patient  mental 
condition,  avoiding  all  bad  tempers. 

Amusement  and  agreeable  occupation  as  far  as 
possible. 

Judicious  use  of  bathing,  particularly  of  the 
sitz-bath. 

The  Fruit  Diet,  and  avoidance  of  unsuitable  food, 
and  of  alcoholic,  narcotic,  and  other  stimulants. 

Watchfulness  and  prompt  treatment  of  the 
various  ailments  of  the  situation,  should  they 
appear. 

Kindness  and  indulgence  by  the  patient's  hus- 
band and  friends. 

The  use  of  chloroform,  if  required,  at  delivery ; 
but  only  if  administered  and  watched  by  a  profes- 
sional attendant. 


APPENDIX. 


THE  HUSBAND'S  DUTY. — It  is  very  necessai) 
that  the  wife,  who  is  pregnant,  should  have  the  co« 
operation  and  sympathy  of  her  husband  in  carry 
ing  out  all  the  details  of  the  mode  of  life  laid  down 
in  this  book.  Few  women  are  strong  enough  to 
go  alone  through  the  months  and  years  of  child- 
bearing  without  the  moral  help  of  him  on  whom 
she  looks  for  support.  Indeed,  it  will  often  fall  tc 
the  husband  to  decide  for  the  wife  what  course  it  is 
best  to  pursue.  He  should  see  that  she  has  such 
books  to  read  as  will  be  of  service  to  her;  should 
often  read  them  to  her.  He  should  see  that  she  is 
properly  informed  on  all  those  topics  that  are 
essential  to  her  well-being  and  that  of  the  child ; 
that  proper  food  is  provided;  that  means  for 
bathing,  recreation,  etc.,  are  not  wanting;  that  care 
and  perplexity  are  not  bearing  her  down.  The 
wise  stock-breeder  tenderly  looks  after  the  wants 
of  pregnant  animals.  The  wise  man  should  not  do 
less  for  the  wife,  whom  he  has  sacredly  promised  lo 
love  and  protect.  He  ought  rather  to  do  for  b  er  a 
great  deal  more. 


100  APPENDIX. 

SMALL  FAMILIES.— It  is  the  fashion  of  tlnee 
who  marry  nowadays  to  have  few  children  often 
none.  Of  course  this  is  a  matter  which  married 
people  must  decide  for  themselves.  As  was  stated 
in  an  early  chapter,  sometimes  this  policy  is  the 
wisest  that  can  be  pursued.  Diseased  people,  who 
are  likely  to  beget  only  sickly  offspring,  may  follow 
this  course,  and  so  may  thieves,  rascals,  vagabonds, 
insane  and  drunken  persons,  and  all  those  who  are 
likely  to  bring  into  the  world  beings  that  ought 
not  to  be  here.  But  why  so  many  well-to-do  folks 
should  pursue  a  policy  adapted  only  to  paupers  and 
criminals,  is  not  so  easy  to  explain.  Why  marry  at 
all  if  not  to  found  a  family  that  shall  live  to  bless 
and  make  glad  the  earth  after  father  and  mother 
are  gone  ?  It  is  not  wise  to  rear  too  many  chil- 
dren, nor  is  it  wise  to  have  too  few.  Properly 
brought  up,  they  will  make  home  a  delight  and 
parents  happy. 

Galton,  in  his  great  work  on  hereditary  genius, 
observes  that  "  The  time  may  hereafter  arrive,  in 
far  distant  years,  when  the  population  of  the  earth 
shall  be  kept  as  strictly  within  bounds  of  number 
and  suitability  of  race,  as  the  sheep  of  a  well-ordered 
moor,  or  the  plants  in  an  orchard-house;  in  the 
mean  time,  let  us  do  what  we  c*n  to  encourage  the 
multiplication  of  the  races  best  fitted  to  invent  and 
conform  to  a  high  and  generous  civilization,  and 
not,  out  of  a  mistaken  instinct  of  giving  support  to 


APPEXDIX.  101 

the   weak,   prevent  the  incoming  of  strong  and 
hearty  individuals." 

BEST  AGE  FOR  PROCREATION. — The  best  age 
for  begetting  children  are  those  years  in  which 
there  is  the  highest  vigor  and  maturity  of  body  and 
mind.  These  are,  for  man,  from  twenty-five  to 
forty  or  forty-five,  and  for  woman  from  twenty  to 
forty.  Even  healthy  women  lose  the  power  of 
procreation  between  forty  and  forty-five.  Men  who 
take  proper  care  of  their  bodies  retain  it  much 
longer,  though  dissipated  men  become  impotent 
very  early  in  life.  There  are  thousands  of  men  who 
are  impotent  at  forty.  It  is  a  shame  to  them  that 
it  is  so,  but  nature  is  inexorable  in  her  laws,  and 
punishes  all  her  children  for  disobeying  them. 

SHALL  SICKLY  PEOPLE  RAISE  CHILDREN? — 
The  question  whether  sickly  people  should  marry 
and  propagate  their  kind,  is  briefly  alluded  to  in 
an  early  chapter  of  this  work.  Where  father  and 
mother  are  both  consumptive,  the  chances  are  that 
the  children  will  inherit  physical  weakness,  which 
will  result  in  the  same  disease  unless  great  pains  is 
taken  to  give  them  a  good  physical  education,  and 
even  then  the  probabilities  are  that  they  will  find 
life  a  burden  hardly  worth  having.  Where  one 
parent  is  consumptive  and  the  other  vigorous,  the 
chances  are  just  half  as  great.  If  there  is  a  scrofu 


102  APPENDIX. 

lous  or  consumptive  taint  in  the  ulood.  oeware  i 
Sickly  children  are  no  comfort  to  their  parents,  no 
real  blessing.  If  such  people  marry,  they  had  bet- 
ter, iu  most  cases,  avoid  parentage. 

IMPORTANCE  OF  PHYSIOLOGICAL  ADAPTATION.— 
Before  two  persons  "  fall  in  love"  with  each  other 
they  should  try  and  decide  if  the  union  is  the  best 
one  by  which  to  produce  healthy,  well-bred  off- 
spring. People  should  never  marry  without  love ; 
but  all  who  love  should  not  marry.  The  object  of 
marriage  is  not  love,  but  to  carry  out  the  family 
relation,  especially  to  rear  and  educate  children, 
and  while  love  is  absolutely  essential  to  a  true 
marriage,  so  also  is  physiological  adaptation.  There 
are  those  who  think  if  two  persons  love  each  other 
they  are  justified  in  marrying,  but  no  marriage  is  a 
good  one  that  takes  this  alone  into  account 

Mr.  Darwin,  in  his  great  work  on  The  Descent 
of  Man,  says,  "Man  scans  with  scrupulous  care  the 
character  and  pedigree  of  his  horses,  cattle,  and 
dags  before  he  matches  them ;  but  when  it  cornea 
to  his  own  marriage,  he  rarely  or  never  takes  such 
care.  He  is  impelled  by  nearly  the  same  motives 
as  are  the  lower  animals  when  left  to  their  own 
free  choice,  though  he  is  in  so  far  superior  to  them 
that  he  highly  values  mental  charms  and  virtues. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  is  strongly  attracted  by 
mere  wealth  or  rank-  Yet  he  might  by  selection 


103 

do  something  not  only  for  the  bodily  constitution 
and  frame  of  his  offspring,  but  for  their  intel 
lectual  and  moral  qualities.  Both  sexes  ought  to 
refrain  from  marriage  if  in  any  marked  deg/ee  infe- 
rior in  body  or  mind ;  but  such  hopes  are  Utopian, 
and  will  never  even  be  partially  realized  until  the 
laws  of  inheritance  are  thoroughly  known.  All  do 
good  service  who  aid  toward  this  end.  When  tin 
principles  of  breeding  and  of  inheritance  are  bettei 
understood,  we  shall  not  hear  ignorant  members  of 
our  legislature  rejecting  with  scorn  a  plan  for  ascer- 
taining by  an  easy  method  whether  or  not  consan- 
guineous marriages  are  injurious  to  man. 

"  The  advancement  of  the  welfare  of  mankind  is 
a  most  intricate  problem  :  all  ought  to  refrain  from 
marriage  who  cannot  avoid  abject  poverty  for  their 
children  ;  for  poverty  is  not  only  a  great  evil,  but 
tends  to  its  own  increase  by  leading  to  recklessness 
in  marriage.  On  the  other  hand,  as  Mr.  Galton 
has  remarked,  if  the  prudent  avoid  marriage,  while 
the  reckless  marry,  the  inferior  members  will  tend 
to  supplant  the  better  members  of  society.  Man, 
like  every  other  animal,  has  no  doubt  advanced  to 
his  present  high  condition  through  a  struggle  for 
existence  consequent  on  his  rapid  multiplication  ; 
and  if  he  is  to  advance  still  higher  he  must  remain 
subject  to  a  severe  struggle.  Otherwise,  he  would 
Boon  sink  into  indolence,  and  the  more  highly- 
gifted  men  would  not  be  more  successful  in  th<« 


104  APPENDIX. 

battle  of  life  than  the  less-gifted.  Hence  cur  natn« 
ral  rate  of  increase,  though  leading  to  many  and 
obvious  evils,  must  not  be  greatly  diminished  by 
any  means.  There  should  be  open  competition  for 
all  men  ;  and  the  most  able  should  not  be  pre- 
vented by  laws  or  customs  from  succeeding  best  an-1 
rearing  the  largest  number  of  offspring." 

CELIBACY. — The  following  paragraph  from  Mr 
Galton,  is  very  significant,  and  though  the  sam? 
policy  is  not  likely  to  be  again  repeated,  in  thd 
same  way,  it  may  be  in  other  forms  which  will  be 
quite  as  unfortunate.  He  says, "  The  long  period  of 
the  dark  ages  under  which  Europe  has  lain,  is  due,  1 
believe,  in  a  very  considerable  degree  to  the  celib 
acy  enjoined  by  religious  orders  on  their  votaries 
Whenever  a  man  or  woman  was  possessed  of  a  gen 
tie  nature,  that  fitted  him  or  her  to  deeds  of  charity, 
to  meditation,  to  literature,  or  to  art,  the  social 
condition  of  the  time  was  such  that  they  had  no 
refuge  elsewhere  than  in  the  bosom  of  the  Church 
But  the  Church  chose  to  preach  and  exact  celibacy 
The  consequence  was,  that  these  gentle  natures  had 
no  continuance,  and  thus,  by  a  policy  so  singularly 
unwise  and  suicidal  that  I  am  hardly  able  to  speak 
of  it  without  impatience,  the  Church  (Catholic) 
brutalized  the  breed  of  our  forefathers.  She  prac 
tised  the  arts  which  breeders  would  use  who  aimed 
at  creating  ferocious,  currish,  and  stupid  natures 


APPEXDIX.  105 

No  wonder  that  club-law  prevraled  for  centuries 
over  Europe.  The  wonder  rather  is,  that  good 
enough  remained  in  the  veins  of  Europeans  to  ena- 
ble their  race  to  rise  to  its  present  very  moderate 
level  of  natural  morality." 

TOBACCO  AXD  ALCOHOL. — The  effects  of  tobaccc 
on  offspring  are  now  known  to  be  serious.  Of 
course  those  who  use  but  little  of  it  may  not  see 
the  direful  consequences  in  their  children,  but  it 
hardly  needs  the  eye  of  a  physiologist  to  trace  many 
serious  cases  of  nervous  disorders,  in  eluding  idiocy, 
to  the  direct  excessive  use  of  this  loathsome  and 
disgusting  weed.  Dr.  Pidduck,  a  London  surgeon 
of  extensive  observation,  says,  "In  no  instance  is 
the  sin  of  the  father  more  directly  visited  on  the 
children  than  in  tobacco-using.  It  produces  in  the 
offspring  an  enervated  and  unsound  constitution, 
deformities,  and  often  an  early  death."  The  writer 
of  these  lines  has  seen  the  most  fearful  effects 
produced  upon  children  begotton  by  those  whose 
nervous  systems  had  been  shattered  by  its  use.  A 
potent  cause  of  impotency  is  found  in  the  use  of 
tobacco.  Let  women  beware  how  they  mate  them- 
selves with  those  addicted  either  to  smoking  or 
chewing,  Not  less  disastrous  is  the  use  of  alcoholic 
bsverages.  Dr.  Napheys  says,  "  Not  only  does  the 
abuse  of  alcoholic  beverages  shorten  virility,  but  it 
transmits  toe  same  tendency  to  the  male  descend- 
5* 


100  APPENDIX. 

ants,  even  when  no  intemperance  can  be  charged, 
yet  the  peculiarly  American  habit  of  taking  strong 
liquors  on  an  empty  stomach  is  most  destructive  to 
nervous  force,  and  most  certain  to  prevent  healthy 
children."  Darwm,  than  whom  there  are  few 
higher  authorities,  tells  us  that  intemperance,  per- 
sisted in  for  a  few  generations  by  any  family,  ia 
likely  to  lead  to  its  extinction.  Nature  does  not 
find  it  profitable  to  keep  them  on  the  earth, — thej 
sannot  contend  with  the  more  temperate  in  the 
struggle  for  existence.  Morel  mentions  a  family 
where  the  father  was  a,  drunkard,  the  son  inherited 
his  father's  habits,  the  grandson  had  suicidal  tend- 
encies, and  the  great-grandson,  the  last  of  the 
race,  was  stupid  and  idiotic. 

DETERMINING  THE  SEX  OF  CHILDREN. — There 
are  many  persons  who  would  give  a  great  deal  to 
know  the  law  for  determining  the  sex  of  offspring 
at  will,  and  there  are  many  respectable  physiolo- 
gists who,  no  doubt,  honestly  believe  that  they  have 
discovered  this  law.  Surely  effort  enough  has  been 
made  in  this  field  of  inquiry,  but  with  what  suc- 
cess? The  theory  now  more  generally  accepted 
than  any  other  is  that  of  Prof.  Thury,  of  the  Acad- 
emy, Geneva,  and  his  experiments  seem  to  have 
b^en  perfectly  satisfactory.  His  theory  is,  that  if 
impregnation  takes  place  immediately  or  very  soon 
after  menstruation,  the  child  will  be  a  female  ;  but 


APPENDIX.  107 

if  impregnation  does  not  take  place  unti?  some 
days  after,  the  child  will  be  a  male.  Darwin,  hoM 
ever,  states  in  his  latest  works  that  recent  experi- 
ments discountenance  Thnry's  theory  as  incorrect. 
If  this  be  true,  our  men  of  science  will  turn  theii 
attention  in  other  directions  to  discover  this  law. 
Certain  it  is,  that  every  false  theory  disproved,  by 
negation  at  least,  brings  us  one  nearer  the  true  one. 

FATHER'S  vs.  MOTHER'S  INFLUENCE. — It  has  been 
a  question  of  much  interest  and  no  little  impor- 
tance, to  decide  whether  the  father  or  mother 
influences  the  character  of  the  offspring  most 
Many  have  contended  that  the  mother's  influence 
by  far  exceeds  the  father's,  for  the  reason  that  the 
child  is  for  months  nourished  by  her  blood,  and 
made  better  or  worse  by  her  state  of  mind.  Some 
writers  have  gone  so  far  as  to  maintain,  that  a 
woman,  by  living  right  during  the  months  of  preg- 
nancy, can  make  the  unborn  child  bear  almost  any 
character  she  pleases,  and  many  facts  bearing  on 
this  point  have  been  adduced.  Mrs.  Farnham 
believed  this,  and  maintained  it  strongly  in  hei 
"  Woman  and  her  Era."  "  To  the  masculine,"  said 
this  thoughtful  writer,  "parentage  is  an  incident ;" 
and  then  she  adds,  "  To  the  feminine  it  is  being  set 
apart  by  nature  to  a  sacred  trust  which  can  be  vio- 
lated only  at  tremendous  peril ;  peril  to  the  moral 
and  physical  welfare,  both  of  herself  =:jd  the  com- 


108  APPENDIX. 

ing  life ;  peril  proportioned  to  the  a  #  ful  magnitude 
of  the  responsibility,  and  to   the  divine  demands 
it  makes  upon  nature  in  whose  innermost  depths 
of  soul  and  body,  a  life  is  deposited,  to  draw  thence 
support,  form,  and  expression."  Gal  ton  has  probably 
done  more  to  settle  this  question  than   any  other 
man  ;  and  as  his  views  are  the  most  recent  and  not 
generally   known,  a   brief  statement  of  them  will 
not  be  out  of  place.     He  carefully  traced  the  biog- 
raphies of  a  large  number  of  illustrious  men  in  dif- 
ferent walks  of  life,  and  found  that  among  judges, 
statesmen,  commanders,  men  of  literature,  and  men 
of  science,  in  one  hundred  cases  70  of  them  would 
be  found  to  have  derived  their  talent  mainly  from, 
their  fathers,  and  30  mainly  from  their  mothers. 
In  the  case  of  poets  and  artists,  the  influence  of 
the  female  line  is  enormously  less  than  the  male,  be- 
ing 94  to  6  in  the  former,  and  85  to  15  in  the  latter- 
Eminent  divines,  however,  he  finds  inherit  their 
talent  very  largely  from  their  mothers,  the  relation 
being  73  to  27  in  their  favor.   Mr.  Galton,  however, 
admits  that  the  apparent  incapacity  of  the  female 
line  for  transmitting  peculiar  forms  of  ability  may 
be  due  to  the  fact  that  the  daughters  of  eminent 
men  do  not  marry  so  frequently  as  other  women 
He  makes  an  exception  in  the  case  of  the  laughters 
of  eminent  divines,  they  being  quite  as  like1}:  to 
marry  as  the  women  of  any  class.    If  we  admit  the 
truth  of  these  investigations,  hhe  conclusions   ive 


APPENDIX  J09 

must  arrive  at,  are,  that  the  intellectual  faculties 
an;  most  likely  to  be  inherited  from  the  father,  and 
the  moral  nature  from  the  mother,  and  this  is  no 
doubt  near  the  truth.  Each  sex  gives  to  the  off 
spring  what  it  has  the  most  of. 

In  regard  to  bodily  conformation,  the  same  gen 
eral  principle  seems  to  hold  good,  the  male  trans- 
mitting the  bony  frame-work  and  the  muscular 
system,  lungs  and  heart,  and  the  female  the  vital 
organs,  especially  the  organs  of  digestion  and  assim- 
ilation. It  is  well  to  bear  these  points  in  mind,  as 
they  may  often  aid  in  deciding  the  physiological 
adaptation  of  two  persons  who  may  wish  to  marry. 

On  the  whole  we  may  infer  that  the  influence  of 
the  different  sexes  on  offspring  is  about  equal,  and  it 
is  probably  well  that  this  is  so.  It  gives  to  each 
an  equal  right  in  them,  and  imposes,  if  not  the 
same,  at  least  equal  duties,  and  this  is  what  all  chil- 
dren need.  A  child  should  never  be  brought  up 
ander  the  exclusive  influence  of  either  sex;  there 
are  many  things  a  mother  only  can  do  for  it,  and 
quite  as  many  things  a  father  only  can  do. 

SHALL  PREGNANT  WOMEST  WORK  ? — Some  yean 
ftgo,  a  thoughtful  mother  wrote  an  article  for  a 
leading  American  magazine,  from  which  the  fol- 
lowing sentence  is  taken : — "  Children  born  of  over- 
worked mothers,  are  liable  to  be  a  dwarfed  and 
puny  race.  I  am  inclined  to  think,  however,  that 


110  APPENDIX. 

their  chances  are  better  than  those  of  the  children 
of  inactive,  dependent,  indolent  mothers,  who  have 
Ufither  brain  nor  muscle  to  transmit  to  son  or 
daughter.  The  truth  seems  to  be,  that  excessive 
labor,  with  either  body  or  mind,  is  alike  injurious 
to  both  man  and  woman ;  and  herein  lies  the  sting 
of  that  old  curse."  This  paragraph  suggests  all 
that  need  be  said  on  the  question  whether  pregnant 
women  should  or  should  not  labor.  At  least  it  is 
certain  they  should  not  be  foolishly  idle  ;  and  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  equally  certain  that  they  should  be 
relieved  from  painful  laborious  occupations  that 
exhaust  and  unfit  them  for  happiness.  Pleasant  and 
useful  physical  and  intellectual  occupation,  how- 
ever, will  not  only  not  do  harm,  but  positive  good. 

INTELLECTUAL  ACTIVITY  AND  PARENTAGE. — 
Another  question  of  interest  is,  whether  great  in- 
tellectual activity  is  favorable  to  maternity,  or  the 
reverse.  There  is  probably  but  one  answer  to  this 
question,  and  that  is — "  the  more  personal  expendi- 
ture of  nervous  energy,  the  less  maternal  vigor." 
(f  all  the  life-force  is  used  up  on  the  brain  and 
nerves,  little  is  left  for  the  processes  of  procreation. 
Great  and  constant  nervous  exertion  involves  a 
costly  outlay  of  life. 

E.  Ray  Lankester,  in  his  excellent  Prize  Essay 
on  Comparative  Longevity,  says,  "  It  is  noteworthy 
thut  the  generative  expenditure  is  lesseced  in 


APPENDIX.  Ill 

*»omen  when  the  personal  expenditure  is  increased, 
a*  is  distinctly  observed  in  the  United  States  ol 
America,  where  the  women  are  intellectually  fas 
more  active  than  elsewhere,  and  suffer,  so  far,  from 
the  relatively  enormous  costliness  of  nervous  out- 
lay. Thus  the  material  of  generation  serves  as  a 
store  which  is  drawn  upon  before  the  general  powera 
involving  longevity  are  affected  in  women."  The 
reader,  however,  must  not  misunderstand  this  quo- 
tation. It  does  not  teach  that  women  may  not 
become  cultivated  and  intellectual  without  loss  of 
procreative  power,  but  they  must  not  use  up  too 
much  of  their  energy  in  intellectual  activity  if  they 
wish  to  become  mothers.  Engrossing  literary  pur- 
suits, no  less  than  anxiety,  care,  and  an  overtaxed 
physical  system,  interferes  with  procreation.  There 
are  those  who  spurn  child-bearing  as  ignoble  com- 
pared with  intellectual  labor,  but  the  successful 
rearing  of  noble  boys  and  girls,  is  the  greatest  work 
that  has  ever  been  accomplished  on  this  planet 
Literature,  art,  science,  all  pale  before  it.  In  it  all 
culture  and  discipline,  all  goodness  and  beauty 
2ombine.  "The  woman's  womanliness  and  the 
man's  manliness  find  full  expression  here  in  the 
quality  of  offspring."  James  Parton  says,  "  The 
best  man  is  he  who  can  rear  the  best  ch:!d,  and  tho 
best  woman  is  she  who  can  rear  the  best  child." 
We  very  properly  extol  to  the  skies  Harriet  Hosmer, 
the  artist,  for  cutting  in  marble  the  statue  of  a 


112  APPENDIX. 

Zenobia;  how  much  more  should  we  sing  praises 
to  the  man  and  the  woman  who  bring  into  the 
world  a  noble  boy  or  girl.  The  one  is  a  piece  of 
lifeless  beauty,  the  other  a  piece  of  life  including 
%11  beauty,  all  possibilities. 

Mss.  STANTON'S  TESTIMONY. 

ELIZABETH  CADY  STANTON",  in  a  lecture  to  ladies, 
delivered  after  most  of  this  work  was  in  print,  thus 
strongly  states  her  views  regarding  maternity,  and 
painless  parturition : — 

"We  must  educate  our  daughters  to  think  that 
motherhood  is  grand,  and  that  God  never  cursed 
it.  And  the  curse,  if  it  be  a  curse,  may  be  rolled 
off,  as  man  has  rolled  away  the  curse  of  labor  ;  as 
the  curse  has  been  rolled  from  the  descendants 
of  Ham.  My  mission  among  i?omen  is  to  preach 
this  new  gospel.  If  you  suffer,  it  is  not  because 
you  are  cursed  of  God,  but  because  you  violate  his 
laws.  What  an  incubus  it  would  take  from  woman 
could  she  be  educated  to  know  that  the  pains  of 
maternity  are  no  curse  upon  her  kind.  We  know 
that  among  Indians  the  squaws  do  not  suffer  in 
childbirth.  They  will  step  aside  from  the  ranks, 
even  on  the  march,  and  return  in  a  short  time 
bearing  with  them  the  new-born  child.  What  an 
absurdity,  then,  to  suppose  that  only  enlightered 
Christian  women  are  cursed.  But  one  word  of  1-.wi 
is  worth  a  volume  of  philosophy  ;  let  me  give  ^ou 


Al'l'KXDIX.  113 

some  of  my  own  experience.  I  am  the  mother  of 
seven  children.  My  girlhood  was  spent  mostly  in 
the  open  air.  I  early  imbibed  the  idea  that  a  girl 
was  just  as  good  as  a  boy,  and  I  carried  it  out.  1 
would  walk  five  miles  before  breakfast,  or  ride  ten 
on  horseback.  After  I  was  married  I  wore  my 
clothing  sensibly.  Their  weight  hung  entirely  on 
my  shoulders.  I  never  compressed  my  body  out 
of  its  natural  shape.  When  my  first  four  children 
were,  born,  I  suffered  very  little.  I  then  made  up 
my  mind  that  it  was  totally  unnecessary  for  me  to 
suffer  at  all;  so  I  dressed  lightly,  walked  every  day, 
lived  as  much  as  possible  in  the  open  air,  eat  no 
condiments  or  spices,  kept  quiet,  listened  to  music, 
looked  at  pictures,  and  took  proper  care  of  myself. 
The  night  before  the  birth  of  the  child  I  walked 
three  miles.  The  child  was  born  without  a  par- 
ticle of  pain.  I  bathed  it  and  dressed  it,  and  it 
weighed  ten  and  one-half  pounds.  That  same  day 
I  dined  with  the  family.  Everybody  said  I  would 
surely  die,  but  I  never  had  a  relapse  or  a  moment's 
inconvenience  from  it.  I  know  this  is  not  being 
delicate  and  refined,  but  if  you  would  be  vigorous 
and  healthy,  in  spite  of  the  diseases  of  vour  ances- 
tors, and  your  own  disregard  01  nature's  laws, 
try  it." 


APPENDI!  TO   THE  SECOND  EDITION. 


HEALI-H  LIFT  FOR  PREGNANT  WOMEN  -- 
W  ithin  a  very  lew  years,  a  new  system  of  physical 
culture  has  been  introduced  into  a  few  of  our  large 
cities,  and  has  been  highly  approved  by  very  many 
intelligent  physicians,  and  other  persons  who  have 
used  it.  It  consists  in  lifting,  on  a  peculiarly-con- 
structed machine,  weights  of  iron  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  call  simultaneously  into  rather  vigorous,  but 
not  sudden,  exercise  nearly  every  muscle  of  the 
body.  The  effect  upon  the  abdominal  muscles,  which 
are  principally  concerned  in  expelling  the  child,  is 
to  give  them  greater  strength.  In  civilized  woman, 
these  muscK-s  are  generally  lax  and  weak,  owing  to 
her  sedentai  y  habits  and  methods  of  dress ;  and 
much  of  the  tediousness  of  labor  is  often  caused  by 
this  weakness.  The  Lifting-Cure,  as  taught  by  Dr. 
Butler,  of  Boston,  and  Drs.  Janes  and  Young,  of  New- 
York,  on  their  delicately-contrived  machines,  if  care- 
fully adapted  to  the  strength  and  condition  of  the 
patient,  tends  to  cure  this  pelvic  weakness,  and  so 
far  prevent  tediousness  and  suffering  in  child-birth. 
The  reader  need  not  bo  alarmed  when  the  word 


116  APPENDIX. 

"  lifting"  is  used,  as  the  weights  may  be  exceedingly 
light,  and  so  evenly  distributed  over  the  body  as  tc 
produce  no  strain  upon  any  part ;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, an  exhilarating  effect,  on  account  of  the 
equalizing  effect  it  has  upon  the  circulation.  In 
order  to  bring  the  subject  fairly  before  the  reader, 
the  following  questions  were  sent  to  Dr.  Butler,  and 
the  following  answers  received : 

QUESTIONS. 

"  Have  you  had  any  experience  with  the  effects  of 
your  lifting  exercises  upon  pregnant  women,  and  if 
so,  what  have  they  been  ? 

"  First.  Upon  preventing  the  pain  and  tediousness 
of  child-birth  ? 

"  Second.  What  have  been  the  effects  on  the 
health  of  the  mother  during  pregnancy  ? 

"Third.  What  have  been  the  effects  upon  the 
child  ? 

"  Fourth.  Are  there  any  other  effects  noticed,  and 
if  so,  what  ?" 

ANSWEBS. 

"  The  effect  of  the  Health-Lift,  as  produced  by  us 
on  our  machines,  has  been  to  diminish  the  pain  and 
shorten  the  time  of  labor  in  cases  of  women  who 
had  previously  borne  children ;  and  in  cases  where 
Mromen  have  borne  them  for  the  first  time, 


APPENDIX.  117 

physicians  have  been  astonished   at   the  freedom 
from  severe  and  protracted  suffering  in  child-bed. 

"  Second.  Th*»  effect  on  the  health  of  the  mother 
has  been  uniformly  favorable. 

"  Third.  The  effect  on  the  child  has  been  as  uni- 
formly favorable.  Of  all  that  have  been  born  of 
mothers  who  have  lifted  prior  to  and  during  preg- 
nancy, but  one  has  died.  Mothers  who,  previous 
to  lifting,  have  borne  only  puny  children,  have 
borne  healthy  ones.  As  their  own  health  improves, 
they  have  been  able  to  transmit  vigor  in  place  of 
feebleness  to  their  offspring. 

"  Fourth.  The  barren,  in  several  cases,  have  be- 
come fruitful.  This,  however,  has  not  been  uni- 
formly the  case. 

"  Fifth.  Women  who  have  invariably  miscarried 
have,  after  lifting  a  few  months,  escaped  this  dis- 
aster, and  given  birth  to  healthy  children." 

So  much  for  the  Health-Lift.  The  reader  must 
bear  in  mind,  however,  that  lifting  on  delicately-con- 
structed machinery,  in  such  a  position  as  to  prevent 
strain  and  injury,  and  with  light  weights,  and  under 
the  eye  of  a  teacher,  is  a  very  different  matter  from 
lifting  heavy  pots,  kettles,  and  weights,  or  on  badly- 
constructed  apparatus  without  a  teacher.  The 
time  spent  in  lifting  each  day,  under  the  superin- 
tendence of  a  wise  guide,  would  not  be  more  than  one 
or  two  minutes,  and  Avould  tax  the  muscles  lightly 
l>Ht  eve-lily,  while  the  miscellaneous  lifting  would 


118  APPENDIX. 

do  quite  the  reverse.  This  knowledge  may  oftec 
be  useful  to  those  who  can  take  advantage  of  it, 
and  need  exercises  of  this  character.  The  deduc- 
tions of  Dr.  Butler  are  the  result  of  observations 
in  about  fifty  cases. 

THE  SIZE  or  THE  PELVIS  AND  ITS  RELATION  TO 
PAINLESS  PARTURITION. — It  would  be  impossible 
within  the  limits  of  a  work  like  this  to  present  any 
thing  like  a  detailed  description  of  the  pelvis,  so- 
called — that  portion  of  the  human  frame  which,  in 
the  female,  plays  so  important  a  part  in  the  process 
of  parturition  ;  but  there  are  many  things  concern- 
ing it  which  every  woman  may  find  it  of  use  to 
know,  and  which  can  be  easily  understood  without 
entering  into  the  minutiae  of  its  construction  or  em- 
ploying difficult  and  technical  words  to  explain. 

In  general  terms,  it  may  be  briefly  described  as  a 
bony  cavity  or  passage,  in  which  are  inclosed  the 
internal  organs  of  generation,  and  through  which 
the  child  is  to  pass  when  it  has  attained  the  highest 
point  of  intra-uterine  development  of  which  it  is 
capable.  Its  outline  is  extremely  irregular  and  of 
considerable  size,  varying,  of  course,  according  to 
individual  conformation.  It  is  composed  of  several 
bones,  firmly  bound  together  by  strong  ligaments, 
the  whole  forming  a  basin-shaped  excavation,  situa- 
ted at  the  inferior  extremity  of  the  body  or  trunk. 
A  circular  line  or  ndge  divides  it  into  two  unequaJ 


APPENDIX.  119 

parts,  the  upper  portion  being  much  the  larger  oi 
the  two,  having  broad  flat  walls  sloping  upward 
and  outward,  terminating  at  the  top  in  what  are 
familiarly  called  the  hips.  This  circular  line  is  what 
is  known  as  the  superior  strait  of  the  pelvis,  and  at 
this  point,  the  head  of  the  child  first  engages  when 
the  process  of  labor  commences.  The  lower  or 
true  pelvis,  that  part  lyin<;  below  this  line,  is  much 
smaller,  and  constitutes  the  outlet  through  which 
the  child  is  to  be  forced  into  the  external  world. 
Each  of  these  portions  has  been  accurately  measured 
in  its  several  diameters,  in  order  to  establish  the 
dimensions  of  the  normal,  healthy  pelvis,  and  to 
determine  what  degree  of  deformity  might  exist, 
and  yet  insure  safety  to  both  mother  and  child. 
These  measurements  are  as  follows,  remembering 
that  these  numbers  refer  only  to  the  inside  of  the 
pelvis,  and  that  when  clothed  with  the  soft  tissues, 
muscles,  etc.,  the  diameters  would  necessarily  be  a 
little  less. 

The  transverse  diameter,  or  that  extending  di- 
rectly across  from  hip  to  hip  of  a  healthy  pelvis  is 
five  inches ;  the  antero-posterior  diameter,  from  be 
fore  backward,  four  inches ;  and  the  obliqi>e  dia- 
meters, right  and  left  respectively,  four  and  a  half 
inches.  Those  of  the  lower  portion  are  almost  ex- 
actly the  reverse  of  the  upper,  the  antero-posterioi 
J:amctcr  being  about  five  inches,  the  oblique  four 
and  a  half,  and  the  transverse  four.  Different  obser  v- 


120  APPENDIX. 

ers  change  these  figures  slightly,  but  the  difference  is 
of  no  practical  moment.  It  will  be  seen  from  this 
description  that  in  descending  from  the  cavity  of 
the  abdomen  into  that  of  the  pelvis  the  child  must 
necessarily  perform  a  rotary  movement  before  it 
can  escape  from  the  lower  pelvis ;  and  this  is  really 
the  case.  The  diameters  of  the  child's  head  are  in 
harmony  with  those  of  the  pelvis,  and  must  corre- 
spond with  them  in  its  descent,  in  order  to  insure  a 
natural  and  safe  delivery.  Wherever  the  head  of 
the  child  can  pass,  the  shoulders  and  other  portions 
of  the  body  can  follow  without  difficulty. 

A  deformed  pelvis  is  one  whose  natural  symmetry 
has  been  perverted  by  some  change,  the  result  of 
accident  or  disease  incurred  in  early  life,  and  by  far 
the  great  majority  are  the  result  of  disease.  In 
this  country  they  are,  happily,  very  rare.  Nearly 
all  the  cases  met  with  are  in  women  of  foreign 
birth,  who  have  been  subject,  while  infants,  or  in 
early  childhood,  to  rachitis,  or  rickets,  as  it  is  gene- 
rally called.  It  consists  in  a  deficiency  of  the  earthy 
matter  of  the  bones,  by  reason  of  which  they  lack 
firmness  and  strength,  and  is  caused  mainly  by  im- 
pure air,  insufficient  ventilation,  and  neglect  of  clean- 
liness. It  exists  chiefly  among  the  poor  children  of 
the  large  cities  in  England,  \vho,  at  a  very  earlv 
age,  are  confined  at  labor  unsuited  to  their  years  in 
close  and  heated  factories,  and  workshops  of  vari- 
ous kinds  That  portion  of  their  food  also  which 


APPENDIX.  12 

should  create  bony  matter  not  being  assimilated, 
the  animal  portion  attains  undue  proportion,  and 
the  bones,  in  consequence,  become  soft,  fragile,  and 
flexible.  If  properly  treated,  however,  most  of 
fchese  cases  might  in  time  be  restored  to  a  healthy 
condition,  but,  as  too  often  happens,  the  child  ar- 
rives at  mature  age  permanently  deformed.  The 
pelvis,  under  these  conditions,  assumes  a  variety  of 
forms,  according  to  the  position  most  frequently 
adopted  by  the  child  and  the  nature  of  its  exercise, 
but  most  commonly  it  is  flattened  from  before 
backward,  in  shape  something  like  that  of  an  hour- 
glass. Of  course,  there  are  various  degrees  of  de- 
formity, and  it  is  not  impossible,  where  it  is  only 
slight  in  extent,  for  a  child  to  be  carried  to  its  full 
term  and  safely  born,  but  the  labor  would  be  pro- 
tracted and  difficult.  The  following  measurements 
of  a  deformed  pelvis  may  be  considered  as  a  safe 
guide  on  this  point : 

If  the  antero-posterior  diameter  of  the  supei-ior 
strait  be  less  than  four  and  more  than  three  inches, 
it  is  possible  for  a  full-grown  child  to  pass,  though 
instruments  will  probably  be  required.  If  less  than 
three  and  more  than  two  inches,  the  child  must  bo 
sacrificed  if  the  mother's  life  is  to  be  saved,  unless, 
as  is  occasionally  possible,  the  child  may  be  turned 
and  delivered  by  the  feet,  the  head  being  compressed 
Bufficiently  to  allow  it  to  pass.  But  should  this? 
diameter  be  less  than  two  inches,  the  dreadful  altri' 


122  APPENDIX. 

native  of  cramotomy  or  Caesarian  section  is  pre- 
sented The  responsibility  of  conducting  such 
cases  rests,  of  course,  with  the  attending  physician, 
who  should  make  himself  acquainted  with  the  exact 
amount  of  deformity,  and  exercise  his  best  judgment 
and  greatest  skill  in  averting  any  unfavorable  ter- 
mination either  to  mother  or  child.  A  woman  whose 
pelvis  is  markedly  deformed,  should  never  become 
pregnant ;  and  if  this  does  occur,  labor  should  be 
induced  as  soon  as  her  condition  becomes  known. 
Women  with  deformed  pelves  are  usually  very  thin, 
and  of  a  strong  consumptive  or  scrofulous  tendency. 
They  will  notice  that  the  hip  bones  are  not  sym- 
metrical, one  being  higher  than  the  other,  or  other- 
wise disproportioned ;  and,  if  pregnant,  they  "  quick- 
en," as  the  saying  is,  sooner  than  other  women, 
while  the  abdomen  shows  the  presence  of  the  child 
at  an  earlier  period  than  usual. 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  how  important  it  is  that 
the  pelvis  should  be  normal  in  every  respect,  and 
this  can  only  be  secured  by  the  avoidance  of  those 
causes  before-mentioned,  more  especially  if  the  in- 
fant is  born  of  scrofulous  or  consumptive  parents ; 
for  it  is  only  in  early  life  that  this  deformity  occurs, 
never  after  the  age  of  puberty.  Nothing  better 
can  be  done  than  to  give  such  a  child  plenty  of 
fresh,  pure  milk,  animal  food,  if  old  enough  ;  daily 
exorcise,  suited  to  its  age,  in  the  open  air;  warm 
clothing,  five  from  constriction,  and  allowing  the 


iPPENDIX.  123 

full  play  of  all  its  liraVs,  an  erect  carriage,  a  judioiotu 
system  of  bathing,  and,  in  short,  every  hygienic 
influence  which  nature  and  common  sense  can 
supply. 

A  SPECIAL  CAUSE  OF  PAIN  IN  CHILDBIRTH. — The 
following  letter  has  been  received  from  a  very  intel- 
ligent woman  of  large  experience  and  observation, 
and  one  who  gave  birth  to  a  child  weighing  eleven 
pounds  without  suffering,  when  in  a  condition  of 
perfect  health,  but  afterwards  suffered  much  at  the 
birth  to  one  weighing  only  five  pounds.  She  says, 

"  DEAR  SIR  :  I  have  read  your  valuable  work, 
1  Parturition  without  Pain]  with  great  interest,  and 
believe  if  the  hints  contained  therein  were  carried 
out  it  would  prevent  a  great  deal  of  needless  suffer- 
ing. Will  you  allow  an  experienced  woman  to  say 
that  very  much  of  the  pain  in  childbirth  is  the  re- 
sult of  a  diseased  condition,  such  as  ulceration,  in- 
flammation, etc.,  of  the  os  uteri  ?  The  dilation  of 
the  os  uteri  for  the  passage  of  the  child  when  it  is 
in  a  diseased  condition  gives  rise  to  distressing 
pains  ;  but  I  see  no  reason  why,  in  perfect  health, 
its  dilation  should  be  more  painful  than  opening 
the  mouth.  The  diet,  dress,  and  modes  of  life 
adopted  by  so  many  women  in  civilized  society  for 
generations  ha«  caused  a  majority  of  them  to  inherit 
or  a<  quire  a  diseased  condition  of  the  organs  •>/ 


124  APPENDIX. 

generation,  which  nothing  but  a  return  to  a  natural 
and  healthful  method  of  living  will  cure. 

"Allow  me,  also,  to  add  that  on  page  42  of 
your  book  I  was  sorry  you  did  not,  among  other 
things  to  be  avoided,  mention  the  harm  that  comes 
from  laboring  much  in  a  stooping  position  during 
pregnancy.  Women  who  work  in  the  field  bent 
over  at  hoeing  and  digging,  or  similar  work,  much 
more  frequently  have  the  child  turned  from  its  na- 
tural position,  causing  wrong  presentations  and  thus 
occasioning  much  severe  pain  and  suffering. 

"  Truly,  MRS.  II." 

MRS.  PLUMB'S  OPINION. — The  following  is  an  ex* 

o 

tract  from  a  letter  received  from  Mrs.  Z.  R.  Plumb, 
just  as  the  second  edition  of  this  work  was  being 
sent  to  press,  whom  A'ery  many  will  recognize  as, 
for  many  years,  the  proprietor  of  a  very  large  and 
useful  gymnastic  academy  in  Ne \v-York,  where 
thousands  of  men,  women,  and  children  were  under 
gymnastic  training,  the  value  of  which,  in  many 
cases,  can  never  be  estimated.  It  is  in  reply  to  a 
request  for  her  observation  upon  the  effects  of  gym- 
nastic training  upon  pregnant  women.  She  says, 

"While  I  regaid  exercise  as  all-important  for  a 
healthful,  natural,  and  comparatively  painless  par- 
turition, it  should  be  in  a  suitable  dress — giving 
perfect  freedom  of  motion.  Thus  equipped,  I  know 
from  personal  experience  that  even  vigorous  exen 


APPENDIX.  12i 

cise  during  pregnancy  has  proved  very  beneficial 
and  not  hurtful,  and  tie  control  and  strength  of  mus- 
cle thus  acquired  will  aid  immensely  at  the  birth  of 
the  child. 

"  I  knew  a  case  where  a  lady  exercised — as  had 
been  her  previous  habit  several  hours  daily  in  the 
calisthenium  for  light  gymnastics  until  very  near 
confinement — took  sitz  baths  freely,  and  instead  of 
miscarriage,  as  some  might  infer,  there  was  not  the 
slightest  tendency  in  that  direction.  I  heard  it  re- 
marked in  this  case  by  the  attending  physician  that 
it  was  the  most  natural  labor  he  had  ever  witness 
ed.  The  presentation  was  perfect,  and  the  delivery 
entirely  satisfactory,  though  not  without  severe  suf- 
fering for  a  few  hours  from  constitutional  causes. 
The  child,  how  several  years  old,  is  finely  developed 
and  symmetrical,  with  apparently  a  higher  grade 
of  vitality  and  constitution  than  the  parents  possess. 

"  Hounework  has  its  advantages ;  but  I  think  there 
is  a  tendency  to  overtax  one  set  of  muscles  while 
neglecting  to  bring  others  into  healthy  action. 
There  is  too  much  standing  in  one  position  and 
working  with  the  arms  forward  and  chest  contract- 
ed. Then  again,  in  household  labor,  the  magnetism 
is  thrown  off  and  expended  for  others,  while  in  out- 
door and  calisthenic  exercises  the  mind  is  relaxed, 
and  with  freedom  from  care,  the  magnetic  force  is 
retained  and  husbanded.  Perhaps  I  do  not  make 
myself  clear  on  this  point ;  but  I  believe  that  domes' 


1 26  APPENDIX. 

tic  labor  alone  does  not  folly  perfect  and  prepare 
the  system  for  the  work  of  maternity.  Sitting 
and  bending  of  the  form  forward  in  child  nursing 
would  seem  to  suggest  the  importance  of  counter- 
acting exercises — throwing  the  shoulders  backward 
and  inducing  an  erect  position,  and  expansion  of 
the  chest. 

"  Finally,  when  women  and  men  shall  revere  their 
bodies  too  sacredly  to  deform  them  to  satisfy  per- 
verted tastes — too  holily  to  poison  the  fountain  of 
life  with  the  dregs  of  tobacco  and  stimulating 
drinks — and  when  men  shall  learn  that  their  highest 
good  and  happiness  lies  in  making  woman  queen  in 
what  all  are  willing  to  grant  is  her  peculiar  sphere — 
then,  and  not  till  then,  will  children  be  a  blessing. 
Enforced  and  unwilling  maternity  is  not  the  habit 
of  the  brute ;  why  of  the  human,  so-called,  enlight- 
ened world  ? 

"  As  sure  as  the  little  girl  takes  the  serenest  de- 
light in  her  *  make-believe '  pets,  so  surely  would 
the  free,  pure,  healthy,  womanly  woman  prove  true 
to  her  God-given  instincts. 

"  Then  will  the  earth  be  pf  opled  with  the  glad 
faces  of  children  welcome  from  the  hour  of  concep- 
tion, and  thrice  welcomed  when  the  now  dangerous 
crisis  has  passed,  and  the  woman  is  for  ever  glori- 
fied and  crowned  witii  the  unspeakable  wealth  of 
motherhood.  Z.  R.  PLUMB." 


APPENDIX.  127 

The  caution  elsewhere  given  that  prospective 
mothers  should  never  engage  in  special  gymnastic 
exercise  withe  ut  the  advice  and  oversight  of  a  skill- 
ful and  experienced  teacher  need  not  here  be  re- 
peated. It  would  be  quite  as  sensible  to  send  a  sick 
person  to  the  druggist  to  choose  his  own  remedy  as 
to  advise  gymnastic  exercises  without  at  the  same 
time  providing  against  an  abuse  of  them,  which 
can  only  result  disastrously. 


APPENDIX  TO  THE  EIGHTH  EDITION. 

To  THE  EDITOR  : 

DEAR  SIR:  Some  time  since  I  purchased  a 
copy  of  '*  Parturition  without  Pain."  A  friend 
borrowing  it  asked  permission  to  lend  it  to  Dr. 
S.,  who  is  considered  a  very  eminent  physician. 
His  opinion  was,  that  it  was  a  book  calculated  to 
do  a  great  deal  of  harm,  a  book  made  to  sell ;  so 
much  acid  put  in  the  system  by  the  fruit  diet  was 
a  positive  injury  to  both  mother  and  child,  giv- 
ing them  both  the  colic  after  the  child's  birth. 

As  I  am  not  brilliant  enough  to  reply  to  his 
argument  in  regard  to  the  acid,  will  you  please 
be  kind  enough  to  give  me  an  answer  for  him  ? 
Respectfully,  A  SUBSCRIBER. 


PHILADELPHIA,  PA.,  March  18,  1874. 

DEAR  MADAM  :  The  editor  has  sent  me  your 
letter,  dated  February  4rth,  with  the  request  that 
I  should  answer  it. 

The  reasoning  of  Dr.  S.  is  so  absurd  that  I 
really  do  not  see  what  I  am  to  say  in  direct 


130  APPENDIX. 

reply.  My  own  style  of  reasoning  on  all  sub- 
jects is  so  practical  that  it  will,  no  doubt,  receive 
the  contempt  of  those  who  have  a  fancy  for  fine 
theories.  But  I  have  seen  so  many  promising 
theories  built  up  without  any  basis  in  fact  what- 
ever that  I  prefer  to  seek  facts  direct,  and  let 
theories  go. 

Now,  the  facts  in  regard  to  a  fruit  diet  in 
pregnancy,- so  far  as  I  know  them,  are,  briefly, 
these  :  The  little  volume  "  Parturition  without 
Pain"  gives  a  number  of  instances  of  women 
who,  by  following  the  rules  in  regard  to  diet, 
etc.,  have  found  their  condition  before,  during, 
and  after  confinement  greatly  improved.  Sec- 
ondly, I  can  speak  in  the  most  positive  terms  in 
regard  to  myself,  having,  on  two  occasions,  fol- 
lowed, the  suggestions  of  this  volume,  so  far  as 
practicable,  and  on  both  trials  experiencing  a 
radical  change  for  the  better.  Thirdly,  the  ex- 
perience of  all  who,  by  my  example  and  advice, 
have  been  led  to  the  same  course  of  living  during 
pregnancy,  exactly  coincides  with  mine.  Fourth- 
ly, Dr.  Holbrook  assures  me  that  he  is  constantly 
receiving  voluntary  testimony  heartily  indorsing 
the  truth  of  the  advantages  of  the  fruit  diet. 
Now  it  seems  to  me  here  are  enough  facts  to 


APPENDIX.  131 

break  down  all  the  theories  which  all  the  pro- 
fessional men  in  the  world  might  be  able  to  con- 
struct against  it. 

I  once  heard  a  physician  object  to  the  fruit 
diet  on  the  ground  that  it  would  not  give  enough 
strength  to  the  pregnant  woman  to  undergo  the 
severe  trial  of  parturition.  But  if  the  trial  be 
robbed  of  its  severity,  where  is  the  need  of  the 
extra  strength  ?  Again,  what  strength  is  impart- 
ed by  rich,  strong  animal  food  that  is  ejected 
from  the  stomach,  or  else  passes  out  of  the  sys- 
tem undigested  and  unassimilated  ?  Or,  if  this 
food  be  digested  and  assimilated,  what  is  the 
result  ?  Why,  plethora,  that  most  dreaded  foe 
of  the  pregnant  woman,  leading  either  to  miscar- 
riage or  to  a  terrible  confinement,  in  which  the 
chances  of  death  are  greatly  augmented. 

But  we  do  not  need  to  theorize  on  this  matter. 
Facts  are  sufficient.  And  the  women  who  have 
tried  the  fruit  diet  unanimously  testify  that, 
first,  there  is  not  so  great  an  expenditure  of 
strength  needed  during  confinement ;  and,  sec- 
ondly, they  regain  their  strength  much  sooner 
afterward.  At  my  confinement  I  was  dressed, 
about  my  room,  and  at  my  daily  writing  on  the 
eighth  day,  which  was  being  quite  as  smart  as  I 


132  APPENDIX. 

expected  to  be  on  the  twenty-first  day  under  the 
old  plan. 

Dr.  S.'s  theory  is  that  "  the  fruit  diet  is  a 
positive  injury  to  both  mother  and  child,  giving 
them  both  the  colic  after  the  child's  birth." 
Facts  prove  that  the  doctor  is  mistaken. 

Let  us  examine  what  the  fruit  diet  does.  Both 
by  what  it  excludes  and  what  it  furnishes  it  pre- 
vents indigestion  and  nausea,  or  morning  sick- 
ness ;  it  avoids  the  dangers  of  plethora  ;  and  it 
prevents  too  great  a  hardening  of  the  bones  of 
the  embryo,  thus  rendering  parturition  more 
easy.  Will  the  doctor  pretend  that  any  of  these 
avoided  conditions  are  ones  necessary  to  the 
good  health  of  either  mother  or  child  ?  If  he 
does,  he  simply  proves  himself  unworthy  to  be 
heeded.  And  the  hard,  incontrovertible  facts  go 
to  prove  that  colic  is  unknown  by  either  mother 
or  child  when  the  fruit  diet  is  faithfully  ad- 
hered to. 

If  you  have  occasion  to  test  the  virtues  of  this 
diet  do  it  without  fear,  feeling  assured  that  the 
theories  of  any  doctor  under  the  sun  can  never 
hurt  you  while  the  facts  are  all  in  your  favor. 
I  hold  such  an  undoubting  faith  in  the  efficacy 
of  the  fruit  diet  in  pregnancy  that  I  believe  it  is 


APPENDIX.  133 

capable  of  revolutionizing  all  the  conditions  of 
maternity,  and,  I  might  almost  add,  of  removing 
the  primal  curse  which  declared  to  women,  "  in 
sorrow  shalt  thou  bring  forth  children."  The 
homeopathist  might  here  exclaim,  "  Sim/ilia 
similibus  curantur  /"  As  Eve  got  into  trouble 
by  eating  an  apple,  so  may  she  get  out  of  it  by 
eating  another. 

Whatever  course  of  diet  or  exercise  serves  to 
render  pregnancy  a  state  of  health  and  comfort, 
and  parturition  easy,  must  be  a  correct  and  nat- 
ural course.  Pregnancy  is  a  state  of  health,  not 
of  disease  and  suffering ;  and  those  who  declare 
it  to  be  the  latter  libel  their  Creator. 

Yours  truly,  MRS.  E.  B.  DUFFEY. 


The  following  letter  is  from  Mrs.  Horace 
Mann,  and  will  be  found  to  corroborate  the  state- 
ment of  Mrs.  Duffey : 

CAMBRIDGE,  April  28,  1874. 

To :   On  reading  Mrs.  Duffey's  letter  to 

you,  in  the  last  HERALD  OF  HEALTH,  I  resolved  to 
write  you  of  a  very  striking  instance  of  the  cm' 
cacy  of  the  fruit  diet  in  pregnancy,  an  account  of 
which  appeared  in  Dr.  Holbrook's  volume,  en- 


J  34:  APPENDIX. 

titled  "  Parturition  without  Pain."  A  sistei  of 
mine  had  followed  that  regimen  strictly,  and 
found  the  benefit  of  it  in  bringing  into  the  world 
children  of  uncommon  physical  and  mental  vigor, 
having  a  development  of  body  far  exceeding  her 
own  in  health.  One  day  she  visited  a  friend,  a 
lady  of  wealth,  who  was  out  of  spirits  because 
she  was  expecting  a  repetition  of  the  calamity 
which  had  occurred  in  several  instances  of  child- 
birth in  her  own  case.  She  was  a  woman  of  fine 
health,  and  the  children  whom  she  had  success- 
ively lost  (I  think  there  were  three)  were  fine, 
large  specimens  of  the  human  being ;  but  so 
large  in  the  head  and  of  such  hard  bone  that 
they  could  not  be  born,  and  were  all  taken  from 
the  mother  by  instruments.  She  had  found  her- 
self again  pregnant,  and  expressed  great  sorrow 
that  her  own  and  her  husband's  desire  to  have 
children  should  meet  with  such  sad  disappoint- 
ment. Everything  that  wealth  and  the  kindness 
of  the  most  considerate  of  husbands  could  do  was 
always  done.  The  first  physicians  and  midwives 
gave  their  aid  ;  but,  after  great  suffering,  the 
result  had  always  been  the  same.  The  mother 
soon  recovered  after  these  trials,  and  insisted 
that  she  was  always  perfectly  well  after  the 


APPEXDIX.  135 

birth.  My  sister  asked  her  how  she  lived  as  to 
iliet  and  exercise.  She  said  she  drove  out  nearly 
Dvery  day,  and  ato  the  most  nourishing  diet — 
bhiefly  bread  and  milk — and  digested  her  food 
well.  My  sister  then  told  her  of  the  regimen 
prescribed  by  Dr.  Kovvbotham,  and  she  conclud- 
ed to  give  it  a  faithful  trial.  Instead  of  driving 
in  her  carriage,  and  sitting  still  the  rest  of  the 
time,  she  promised  to  take  a  good  walk  every 
day  at  stated  times.  When  the  time  of  birth 
approached,  the  same  preparations  were  made  as 
on  former  similar  occasions,  the  same  array  of 
physicians  and  nurses  were  in  attendance,  and 
all  friends  were  anxious  lest  a  repetition  of  the 
calamity  might  at  last  prove  fatal  to  the  mother. 
One  day  she  returned  from  a  three-mile  walk, 
and,  feeling  a  little  fatigued,  she  sat  down  on  the 
rocking-chair  in  her  bedchamber,  before  taking 
off  her  bonnet.  Feeling  a  little  uneasy  she  rose 
from  the  chair,  and,  as  she  walked  across  the 
room,  the  child  was  born  upon  the  floor,  without 
a  premonitory  pain  !  Since  that  time  she  has 
had  several  children  with  ease,  and  became,  con- 
sequently, a  convert  to  the  system,  as  many  of 
her  friends  were. 

My  sister's  children  were  the  quietest  babes  I 


136  APPENDIX. 

ever  knew.  They  were  less  troubled  with  colic 
than  most  children  ;  but  it  is  true  that  their 
mother  ate  wholly  in  reference  to  them,  and 
avoided  acids  and  green  vegetables  after  their 
birth,  and  always  had  an  abundance  of  food  for 
them.  Respectfully, 

MARY  MANN. 


BKISTOLVILLE,  O.,  June,  1872. 
DR.  M.  L.  HOLBROOK: 

DEAR  SIR  :  My  wife  got  your  book  "  Parturi- 
tion without  Pain"  some  five  months  previous  to 
her  confinement.  From  that  time  she  followed 
your  directions  with  regard  to  sitz  baths,  and,  in 
part,  her  diet.  She  ate  very  little  bread,  and 
drank  neither  tea  nor  coffee,  but  lived  mostly  on 
fruit  and  vegetables.  She  did  her  own  work — 
four  in  the  family — until  her  confinement ;  did 
not  suffer  any  hard  paiti  previous  to  the  birth  of 
the  child  ;  retired  at  night  as  well  as  usual,  and 
slept  soundly  until  two  hours  before  the  child 
was  born.  This  is  our  fourth  child,  and  she  has 
heretofore  been  sick  twelve  to  twenty -four  hours. 
When  our  last  child  was  born,  four  years  ago, 
she  was  confined  to  her  bed  six  weeks,  but  this 
time  she  was  able  to  sit  up  in  eight  days.  The 


APPENDIX.  137 

child  is  eleven  weeks  old,  and  she  is  feeling  well 
and  strong  as  ever.  The  child  weighed  nine  and 
three-quarter  pounds,  and  is  fine  and  healthy.  I 
never  saw  a  child  enjoy  a  hath  any  better  than 
it  does.  Both  of  our  other  children  cried  con- 
stantly, while  they  were  being  washed  and 
dressed,  until  they  were  a  year  old.  I  firmly 
believe  it  was  my  wife's  barhing  previous  to  her 
sickness  that  made  the  difference.  I  think 
your  book  was  a  great  help  to  her.  She  wishes 
every  woman  in  that  situation  could  read  your 
book,  and  hopes  it  may  have  a  wide  circulation. 
Yours  truly,  B.  FAUSS. 


The  following  letter  was  forwarded  by  Dr. 
Moffatt,  an  eminent  physician  of  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y. : 

SPRING  FARM,  N.  -I.,  July  21,  1873. 

DEAR  DR.  MOFFATT  •  1  write  knowing  that  you 
will  be  glad  to  learn  that  1  am  the  happy  mother 
of  a  little  girl,  now  two  weeks  old.  My  particu- 
lar object  in  writing  at  this  time  is  to  give  you 
my  experience  in  regard  to  fruit  diet.  You 
know  that  I  followed  the  directions  of  the  little 
book  I  lent  you  quite  religiously,  before  the 


Hi  8  APPENDIX. 

birth  of  Ellis,  and  I  attributed  the  comparatively 
easy  labor  1  had  to  doing  so.  This  time  I  was 
so  busy  moving  out  to  the  country,  and  fruit  is 
so  scarce  here  in  the  spring,  that  I  did  not 
change  my  food  at  all ;  and,  in  consequence,  I 
had  a  very  horrible,  protracted  labor.  I  think 
you  will  be  doing  a  kindness  to  those  of  your 
patients  who  expect  to  become  mothers,  by  urg- 
ing them  to  persevere  in  following  with  care  the 
rules  for  diet  laid  down  in  "  Parturition  without 
Pain."  Yours  very  truly, 


Dr.  A.  Smith,  of  Geneva,  N.  Y.,  says  that  he 
has  given  a  copy  of  the  book  to  all  his  patients 
as  a  guide  to  living  during  pregnancy,  and  with 
uniformly  satisfactory  results,  except  in  those 
cases  where  there  are  some  idiosyncrasies  or 
pelvic  deformities. 

Another  physician  says  two  of  her  patients 
who  have  followed  the  directions  of  the  work 
have  found  that  while  they  did  not  altogether 
escape  pain,  bearing  children  was  an  easy  matter 
compared  with  the  old  way. 

Another  writes  :  "  Your  book  has  been  a  boon 
to  me.  It  has  done  all  it  promised." 

Another,  the  wife  of  a  very  distinguished  phy- 


APPENDIX.  139 

Bi'cian,  says  :  "  I  attribute  entirely  to  it  the  ease 
with  which  I  bore  my  first  child,  though  ad- 
vanced in  age  and  with  a  narrow  pelvis,  and  also 
the  health  of  the  child." 

We  might  go  on  quoting  from  letters  received, 
but  it  is  unnecessary. 

We  may  add  that  sometimes  there  is  a  failure 
to  realize  an)'  good.  This,  however,  may  be 
accounted  for  in  many  ways.  The  directions 
may  not  be  fully  carried  out.  There  may  be  a 
contracted  pelvis.  The  person  may  be  of  such  a 
feeble  constitution  that  she  ought  not  to  bear 
children  at  all.  Such  cases  are  common,  and 
they  cannot  expect  to  escape  more  or  less  suffer- 
ing- 

The   editor   sends    the   eighth  edition   of   his 

little  book  on  its  mission  of  mercy,  with  the 
hope  that  it  will,  as  heretofore,  be  warmly  wel- 
comed, and  do  some  service  for  women  who 
have  suffered  so  much  to  perpetuate  the  race. 


CARE    OF   CHILDREN. 


BY 

DR.  CLEMENCE  S.  LOZIER, 

DBAN  Of  THE  NEW- YORK  MEDICAL  COLLEGE  FOR  WOMEN,  KTO. 


*  LITTLE  children  are  idols  of  hearts  and  of  households, 
They  are  angels  of  God  in  disguise ; 
His  sunlight  still  sleeps  in  their  tresses, 
His  glory  still  gleams  in  their  eyes  : 
Oh  !  those  truants  from  home  and  from  heaven, 
They  have  made  me  more  manly  and  mild, 
And  I  know  how  Jesus  could  liken 
The  kingdom  of  Qod  to  a  child." 


CAKE  OF  CHILDREN.* 


1  as  clothing  should  be  prepared  for  a  new-born 
infant  of  fine,  soft  material.  If  it  be  the  season 
requiring  woolen  flannels,  have  them  of  the  softest 
woox  and  silk  mixed.  Some  mothers  line  their 
infants'  woolen  bands  with  old  soft  linen  or  white 
silk,  which  is  very  nice.  In  summer,  flannel  bands 
should  always  be  lined  with  linen,  fine  and  soft,  or 
substitute  linen  instead  of  flannel  for  the  bands— do 
not  hem  them  or  have  seams  in  them — run  the  edges 
or  overcast  them  loosely.  Woolen  foot-blankets  or 
skirts  are  always  suitable,  as  our  climate  is  so 
changeable;  but  if  the  tender  little  feet  are  red- 
dened and  made  sensitive  by  it,  by  all  means  shield 
them  with  soft  linen,  cotton,  or  white  silk.  Let  the 
napkins  be  soft  linen,  with  cotton  flannel  over- 
napkins,  and  be  sure  to  avoid  the  rubber  cloth,  as 
it  weakens  the  child  by  its  being  too  air-tight ;  any 
garment  impervious  to  the  natural  exhalations  of 
the  body  is  debilitating— checking,  as  it  does,  trans- 
piration from  the  cutaneous  surface,  and  preventing 

*  The  author  has  kindly  permitted  this  excellent  essay  tc 
appear  in  this  work. 


144  CAEK    OF   CHILDREN. 

the  tonic  effect  of  oxygen  or  pure  air.  Those  rub 
ber  diapers  are  a  curse  to  infants.  Make  the  gar- 
ments with  as  few  seams  and  gathers  as  possible; 
never  starch  infant  clothing;  many  an  infant  is 
dosed  to  death  for  crying,  when,  if  comfortably 
dressed,  it  would  never  be  restless.  Perhaps  the 
elegantly  ruffled  starch  shirts  and  tight  arm-holes 
of  its  dress  and  the  drawing-string  of  the  neck  are 
its  instruments  of  torture.  Old  or  soft  new  muslin 
made  into  loose-fitting,  long-sleeved  bed-dresses  for 
the  first  three  months,  is  most  sensible.  Few  physi- 
cians or  nurses  are  thoughtful  enough  of  the  sensi- 
tive, tender  skin  of  a  new-born  infant.  Its  first 
crying  is  caused  by  the  exposure  of  the  skin  to  the 
atmosphere,  and,  although  it  serves  the  purpose  to 
expand  the  lungs,  is  not  always  needful.  Testing 
this  fact,  I  have  many  times  been  careful  to  shield 
the  infant  in  a  soft,  warm  covering  at  birth,  and 
many  of  my  most  healthy  babes  have  looked  up 
and  breathed  freely  without  crying  at  all,  and 
always  cease  crying  in  a  few  minutes  when  covered 
properly,  leaving  the  face  bare,  and  placing  them 
on  the  right  side  with  the  head  and  chest  a  little 
elevated  in  good  air. 

The  umbilical  cord  tied  and  severed,  the  child 
becomes  an  individual  being.  The  heart  and  lungs, 
assuming  their  final  functions,  go  on  to  nourish  the 
new  being  from  a  different  source,  namely,  the 
stomach.  As  soon  as  the  child  is  washed  and  dressed. 


CARE    OF    CHILDREK.  145 

it  should  be  put  to  the  mother's  left  oreast,  which 
gives  the  child  the  position  on  its  right  side,  favor- 
ing the  closing  of  the  foramen  in  the  upper  part  of 
the  heart,  through  which  the  arterial  circulation  was 
BO  active  before  birth,  but  is  now  no  longer  needed  ; 
remaining  open,  this  causes  a  mingling  of  the  venous 
and  arterial  blood,  giving  a  bluish  color,  sometimes 
spotted,  to  the  skin,  and  known  in  common  is  blue 
sickness.  Infants  often  die  from  this  cause.  The 
washing  of  an  infant  should  be  done  carefully  and 
quickly  in  quite  warm  water  in  a  warm  room,  using 
only  oils  or  lard  of  the  purest  kind,  and  the  warm 
water.  Never  use  soap  of  any  kind,  or  nursery 
powder  ;  the  first  irritates,  the  latter  closes  the  pores 
of  the  skin  ;  at  least  for  the  first  three  weeks,  oil  and 
warm  water  will  cleanse  the  child  better  than  soap. 
I  have  seldom  seen  a  child  suffer  with  sore  eyes  or 
red  rash  over  the  body  since  I  have  disallowed  the 
use  of  soap.  The  privates  and  nates  should  always 
be  oiled  well  every  time  the  diaper  is  changed. 
The  first  secretion  from  the  mother's  breast  is  suffi 
cient  to  move  the  child's  bowels  and  relieve  them  of 
their  meconium,  or  early  secretions,  if  both  mother 
and  child  are  in  ordinary  health  ;  if  not,  the  best 
laxative  is  about  one  table-spoonful  of  pleasantly 
strong  elder-blow  tea,  sweetened  with  a  very  little 
brown  sugar  or  molasses.  Give  this  warm  every 
two  hours  till  it  moves  the  bowels  freely,  but  always 
wait  twenty-four  hours  before  interfering  with  na- 


146  CAKE    OF   CHILDREN. 

tnre.  Of  course  the  midwife  or  physician  wiH 
examine  and  rectify,  if  any  local  cause  or  malf  onna- 
tion  exist  in  either  the  urinary  or  fecal  passages* 
Then  if  the  child  is  awkward  or  refuses  to  nurse, 
examine  the  tongue,  and,  if  a  membrane  holds  it 
down,  cut  it  with  a  blunt-pointed  scissors,  taking 
care  to  cut  no  further  than  the  thin  skin  or  mem- 
brane, as  just  beyond  you  may  cut  a  small  artery 
which  will  prove  fatal. 

Never  give  your  child  the  rubber  nipple  nursing- 
bottle,  especially  the  white  rubber,  since  it  contains 
in  its  composition  the  carbonate  of  lead,  which  is  a 
sure  poison — in  some  cases  slow,  but  none  the  less 
sure — and  generally  the  child  will  wean  itself  after 
sucking  the  rubber;  the  food  comes  so  easily  from 
it,  and  the  mouth  becomes  too  tender  in  a  few  days 
to  suck  the  natural  nipple.  I  have  watched  the 
effects  of  the  white-rubber  nipple  for  many  years ; 
have  known  cases  of  spinal  curvature— one  oi'  com- 
plete humpback — often  of  decayed  teeth,  innumera- 
ble cases  of  sore  mouth,  and  dysentery  or  diarrhea, 
many  times  causing  death  ;  large,  indolent  boils  on 
the  scalp,  eruptions  behind  the  ears  and  in  the  folds 
of  the  neck,  in  consequence  of  sucking  the  rubber 
nipple.  One  case  of  bow-legs,  within  my  observa- 
tion, was  caused  by  nothing  else  than  by  having 
worn  the  rubber  cloth  diaper.  All  rubber  gum- 
rings  and  toys  should  be  avoided ;  indeed,  I  wish 
every  t.hing  made  from  the  white  robber  could 


CAIIK    OF    CFIILF  ftKV.  14? 

DO  banished  from  the  nursery.  Any  baby  cau  b« 
fed  at  first  with  a  spoon,  and  in  a  few  weeks  it  will 
drink  trora  a  cup  or  small  glass.  If  any  artificial 
nipple  is  needed,  one  of  silver,  glass,  or  porcelain 
can  be  procured.  The  black  rubber  may  not  be  so 
objectionable  as  the  white.  I  have  known  a  very 
good  artificial  nipple  to  be  made  of  a  fine  sponge, 
with  cambric  linen  covering  it.  A  small  quilJ 
stitched  in  thoroughly  is  passed  through  the  centre 
nearly  to  the  linen  cover,  and  by  fitting  the  sponge 
over  the  top  of  a  small-sized  bottle  it  answers  a 
good  purpose.  The  vessels  and  tub^s  can  scarcely 
be  kept  sweet  and  clean  enough  for  the  health  oi 
the  child,  and  here  is  another  plea  for  teaching  a 
child  that  must  be  fed  to  drink  its  food  from  a  cup 
or  glass. 

If  a  mother  has  health  sufficient  to  mature  a 
living  child,  she  should  by  all  means  nurse  it  from 
her  own  breast,  where  this  is  possible.  Her 
own  health  and  future  happiness  require  it,  and 
nothing  can  quite  take  its  place  to  her  infant.  Of 
wet-nurses,  not  one  in  ten  have  pure  btood ;  and 
then  the  love  of  the  child  develops  for  its  nurse,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  low  and  vicious  tempers  it  may 
imbibe.  Oh !  if  it  could  be  so  that  none  but  willing, 
loving  parents  might  bear  children,  what  a  chang  i 
we  should  ^ee !  If  the  mother's  nipples  are  a  little 
tender,  which  almost  always  is  the  case,  a  good 
nurse  will  soon  cure  them.  There  are  many  simples 


143  CARE   OF    CHILDREN. 

suitable  for  different  cases.  One  of  the  best  I  nave 
ever  used  is  tincture  of  myrrh,  diluted  one  hall  with 
water;  wash  the  nipple  after  every  attempt  to 
nurse.  Many  times  the  nipples  are  made  sore  by 
the  white-rubber  shield,  or  nursing-ring  of  the 
breast -pump.  For  the  first  three  to  five  days,  the 
breasts  swell  and  seem  filled  with  milk,  when  in 
fact  there  is  very  little  milk  there ;  and  if  the 
breasts  can  be  covered  with  silk,  which  is  a  non- 
conductor of  electricity,  or  kept  comfortably  warm 
for  a  few  days,  this  will  disappear  without  the 
usual  drawing  and  rubbing,  which  I  find  often 
bruises  the  parts,  causing  inflammation.  The  best 
relief  to  the  breasts  is  the  nursing  babe ;  indeed, 
any  person  can  draw  a  breast  if  one  will  only  be 
careful  to  wrap  the  tongue  around  the  nipple  to 
meet  the  upper  lip. 

If  there  be  no  alternative,  and  the  babe  must  be 
fed,  at  first  give  it  one  tea-spoonful  of  pure  white 
sugar  to  half  a  cup  of  boiling  water ;  add  one  tea- 
spoonful  of  sweet  cream;  if  cream  can  not  be  had, 
use  the  upper  third  of  sweet  milk,  one  third  milk 
and  two  thirds  water,  first  scalding  the  sugar ;  we 
find  nurses  inclined  to  make  the  food  too  sweet  for 
both  mother  arid  child.  This  food  will  do  for  the 
first  t^ree  months,  if  the  <  hild  is  delicate ;  it  any 
thing  stronger  seems  needed,  a  little  oat-meal  or 
thin  barley  gruel  may  take  the  place  of  water  as 
above.  All  new-born  infants  should  be  fed  at  least 


CAKE  OF  CHILDREN: 

every  two  hours  during  the  day  till  nine  01  ten 
at  night,  and  as  seldom  as  possible  after  bedtime 
during  the  night.  A  babe  must  not  be  left  to  wake 
up  to  be  fed  or  cared  for,  as  healthy  infants  should 
sleep  nearly  all  the  time  till  they  are  three  months 
old.  Handled  tenderly  and  put  to  the  breast,  or 
fed,  will  not  disturb  them  so  as  to  make  them  wake- 
ful. If  the  infant's  breasts  swell  or  seem  hardened, 
do  not  pinch  or  squeeze  them  ;  rub  gently,  and 
bathe  with  one  drop  of  belladonna  tincture  and  a 
few  drops  of  glycerine,  and  cover  with  cotton,  wool, 
or  white  silk,  and  in  a  few  days  it  will  disappear. 

The  time  of  weaning  ought  to  be  determined  by 
two  circumstances  :  the  health  of  the  nurse,  and  the 
development  and  health  of  the  child.  When  the 
nurse  is  well  and  the  milk  abundant,  weaning  should 
not  take  place  till  the  development  of  the  teeth 
shows  that  a  change  of  food  is  required.  This  is 
about  the  eighth  or  ninth  month ;  but  in  delicate, 
feeble  children,  it  should  be  delayed  several  months 
longer — a  child  should  not  be  weaned  during  the 
heat  of  summer  nor  suddenly — wean  at  first  during 
the  day,  and  gradually.  If  a  child  is  nursed  while 
it  sleeps,  for  a  few  days,  and  never  when  it  is 
awake,  it  will  not  grieve  or  fret  about  it ;  be  sure 
to  teach  it  to  drink  from  a  cup  or  small  glass.  The 
grand  rule  for  weaning  is  to  accustom  the  child 
gradually  to  the  use  of  other  nourishments,  and  to 
withdraw  the  breast  from  it  by  equally  slow  degree 


150  CARE    OF    CHILDREN. 

A  nurse  should  be  careful  not  to  breathe  in  the 
child's  face.  The  breath  exhaled  from  the  lungs  is 
poisonous,  and  falls  "like  a  heavy  deadly  vapor  upon 
the  infant's  face  as  it  nurses  or  sleeps  on  the  arm  or 
«ame  pillow.  Every  person  should  sleep  alone,  if 
possible,  and  as  soon  as  a  child  can  be  kept  warm 
sleeping  alone,  it  is  much  better  it  should  sleep  in  a 
bed  by  itself,  and  without  being  rocked  while  sleep- 
ing. The  habit  of  talking  or  chirping  to  young 
infants  is  very  wrong;  it  makes  them  nervous,  and 
excites  the  brain  too  soon ;  kissing  them,  especially 
on  the  mouth,  is  most  cruel ;  they  breathe  lightly 
enough,  and  to  smother  them  with  kisses  and  bad 
breath  is  a  silly,  unhealthy  habit,  and  most  repre- 
hensible ;  any  baby  is  worthy  to  be  kissed  on  its 
little  hand  or  foot,  but  none  who  truly  loves  a  child 
will  kiss  it  in  the  face  or  on  the  mouth,  if  they  give 
it  a  moment's  thought.  After  a  child  is  three 
months  old,  its  times  for  food  should  be  every  three 
houi-rf  instead  of  two,  and  the  quantity  increased. 
ISo.n^  children,  from  the  first,  require  more  in  quan- 
tity Uian  others,  and  it  is  quite  impossible  to  give 
the  etaot  amount  for  each  child;  but  it  is  true  that 
a  gluttonous  habit  may  be  and  often  is  formed  ii. 
infancy. 

Avoid  all  alcoholic  stimulants  as  you  prize  the 
happiness  and  well-being  of  your  child.  Drunkards 
are  made  many  times  by  the  unconscious  indulgence 
of  mothers.  Much  of  our  confectionery  is  full  of 


CARE    OF    CHILDREN.  151 

irine  and  brandy;  in  this  hidden  way  a  desire  fo» 
alcoholic  stimulus  is  created ;  and  though  life  may 
not  be  shortened  by  its  use,  it  is  rendered  a  curse  to 
itself  and  all  with  whom  such  a  life  has  influence. 

After  the  babe  is  washed,  the  navel  cord  should 
be  wrapped  in  soft,  dry  cloth,  as  you  would  roll  up 
a  finger,  and  be  turned  up  and  laid  on  the  stomach ; 
place  the  band  on  it  so  as  to  pin  it  in  front,  as  you 
can  more  easily  look  at  it,  and,  if  needful,  place  a 
soft,  clean  cloth  between  it  and  the  abdomen.  Never 
oil  the  cloth,  as  we  wish  it  to  dry  and  come  off  as 
soon  as  the  fourth  or  fifth  day,  and  oil  keeps  up  too 
much  moisture.  If  the  cord  has  not  been  cut  be- 
fore the  circulation  ceased,  it  will  give  you  no  trou- 
ble ;  but  if  there  has  been  too  much  haste  in  cutting 
it,  leaving  it  full  of  blood  and  still  pulsating,  the 
result  will  generally  be  a  tardy  falling-off  and  a 
sore  place  to  heal,  endangering  the  comfort  if  not  the 
health  of  the  child.  If  properly  cut  and  cared  for, 
all  that  it  needs,  after  dressing,  is  a  scorched  soft 
linen  cloth,  smeared  with  a  little  mutton-tallow;  if 
sore,  a  split  raisin  is  very  excellent;  remove  the 
seeds  and  apply.  The  first  week  of  life,  a  child 
should  not  be  entirely  stripped  and  washed ;  it  is 
too  fatiguing.  It  must  of  coui'se  be  kept  sweet  and 
clean,  which  can  be  done  gently,  piece  by  piece.  A 
very  scientific,  successful  man-midwife  in  South- 
Brooklyn  will  not  allow  a  new-born  infant  to  be 
washed  aruj  dressed  till  it  is  twenty-four  hours  old 


152  CARE   OF   CHILDREN. 

He  oils  it  well  and  rolls  it  in  warm,  soft  wraps,  with 
its  face  only  open,  puts  it  to  the  breast,  and  orders 
it  to  be  kept  warm  and  quiet  till  the  second  day, 
when,  if  the  child  is  quite  vigorous,  he  allows  it  to 
be  dressed  and  handled  as  the  nurse  desires;  if  not 
quite  strong  and  rested,  he  sometimes  will  not  sul)- 
ject  it  to  dressing  till  it  is  a  week  old.  I  have  al- 
ways saved  seven  months'  babies  in  this  way,  rolling 
them  in  soft  linen  or  silk  with  cotton  wool  to  keep 
them  warm  ;  wrapping  the  diaper  under  the  arm- 
pits, and  a  soft  covering  over  the  arms.  After  the 
first  week,  they  may  be  dressed  and  undressed  night 
and  morning.  Be  careful  never  to  wash  a  child  im- 
mediately after  feeding  it,  as  digestion  requires  the 
entire  nerve  force,  which  will  be  called  off  to  react 
in  the  skin,  leaving  the  food  undigested,  causing 
colic  and  severe  cramps — sometimes  sudden  death. 
Always  wet  the  head  first  in  giving  a  full  bath,  it 
will  prevent  the  congestion  of  the  brain,  and  soothe 
the  child  remarkably.  Bathe  just  before  feeding  or 
two  hours  after.  If  properly  administered,  a  soft, 
warm-water  bath,  after  oiling,  is  very  refreshing 
and  strengthening. 

There  are  three  rules  to  be  observed  in  dress : 
The  first,  equal  warmth ;  second,  without  ligature ; 
third,  as  light  as  possible,  consistent  with  warmth, 
and  the  weight  suspended  from  the  shoulders.  A 
distinguished  physician  of  Paris  declared,  just  be 
fore  his  death.  "I  believe  that  during  the  twenty 


CAKE    OF    CHILDREN.  153 

ill  years  tliat  I  have  practiced  my  profession  in  this 
city,  twenty  thousand  children  have  been  borne  to 
the  cemeteries,  a  sacrifice  to  the  absurd  custom  of 
naked  arms." 

Dr.  Warren  says,  "Boston  sacrifices  five  hundred 
babies  every  year  by  not  clothing  their  arms." 

The  upper  and  lower  extremities  require  as  much 
covering  as  any  other  part  of  the  body,  if  not  more, 
since  the  blood  is  not  so  freely  circulated  in  the  ex- 
tremities as  in  the  body.  The  absurdity  of  loose, 
flowing  sleeves  and  wide-spread  skirts  worn  in  our 
Changeable  climate  hardly  needs  be  discussed.  In 
our  changeable  climate,  where  the  thermometer  va- 
ries many  degrees,  not  only  from  day  to  day,  but  in 
different  hours  of  the  same  day,  while  the  dress  of  a 
child  should  not  be  at  all  cumbersome,  it  should  be 
sufficiently  warm  to  preserve  equal  temperature  to 
sensitive  parts  of  the  body,  even  upon  the  warmest 
days.  Short  flannel  bands  should  be  worn  loosely 
with  broad  tape  shoulder-straps  or  waist,  for  the 
first  two  years  or  even  three,  over  the  abdomen,  for 
here  are  located  the  viscera  most  affected  by  diseases 
which  increase  summer  mortality.  A  strip  of  soft 
muslin,  linen,  or  white  silk,  can  be  suspended  ovei 
the  spine  and  kidneys,  if  the  flannel  seems  to  irn 
tate.  Secondly,  all  ligatures  are  to  be  avoided,  es- 
pecially around  the  tender  and  expansible  bcny 
structures,  as  the  ribs  and  pelvis.  I  have  seen  in 
pont-niortera  the  lower  lobe  of  the  right  lung  vf  a 


154  CARE    OF   CHILDREN. 

babe  fi  /c  months  old,  dying  suddenly,  complete!} 
solid  or  hepatized,  in  consequence  of  being  pinned 
too  tightly.  The  young  mother  in  her  ignorance 
thought  that  as  her  child  was  a  little  girl,  she  must 
shape  her  waist  in  infancy.  She  frankly  confessed 
it.  Again,  by  drawing  tLo  diaper  tightly  around 
the  hips  of  little  girls,  they  become  deformed,  and 
often  so  contracted  that  in  womanhood  child-bear- 
ing is  made  difficult  if  not  quite  impossible.  Nor 
should  long,  trailing  dresses,  that  like  chain  and 
ball  fetter  the  free  movements  of  the  limbs  of  the 
child,  be  tolerated,  though  they  be  wickedly  im- 
posed by  the  fashion  of  the  day.  The  form  of 
the  trunk  in  boys  and  girls  is  precisely  alike  at 
birth,  and  not  until  the  absurd  ligatures  and  weigh 
ty  skirts,  bare  neck,  arms,  and  legs,  make  the  diffe- 
rence, do  we  see  much,  if  any,  difference  in  health 
and  vitality.  1  am  obliged  to  record  the  fact,  draw  n 
from  my  own  observation  while  abroad,  that  Euro-- 
pean  women  are  more  sensible  in  the  dress  of  their 
children  than  are  our  American  women,  who  often 
run  to  extremes  of  vanity  and  cruel  hccdlessness  or 
ignorance  in  this  respect.  In  Paris,  in  London,  and 
other  European  cities,  I  saw  great  numbers  of  little 
children  dressed  in  high-necked  dresses,  low  enough 
to  cover  their  ankles,  and  long  sleeves,  looking  sweet, 
comfortable,  and  happy.  In  the  Foundling  Hospi- 
tals, dear,  rosy  little  babies,  cunningly  dressed  like 
lit  tie  women,  were  carried  about  in  the  arms  of  their 


CARE    OF    CHILDREN.  155 

nurses  How  different  the  picture  and  t'ne  resu  it  on 
this  side  the  Atlantic!  Not  long  since,  I  saw  a  desir 
little  girl  sitting  on  the  cold  stone  step  of  a  store  on 
one  of  the  corners  of  Broadway,  dressed  in  low-neck 
ed  dress,  with  almost  no  sleeves  and  bright  ribbon 
bows  on  the  shoulders,  short,  stiff  skirts,  pretty  shoes, 
and  short  stockings.  The  day  was  blusteiy  and  cold ; 
and  as  I  was  waiting  for  an  omnibus,  I  saw  the  child 
run  up  to  a  man  on  the  corner  who  was  selling  fruits, 
calling  him  father.  He  was  dressed  with  close,  wanr 
over-coat  and  thick-soled  boots.  The  contrast  was 
complete  between  the  blue,  shriveled,  tiny  little  one 
and  this  great,  strong,  comfortably-dressed  father; 
after  a  while  she  ran  back  again  to  her  cold  stone, 
and,  as  I  took  the  omnibus,  I  watched  her  with 
prayerful,  sad  reflections  of  the  unfitness  of  parents 
for  their  trust,  and  renewed  my  resolve  to  do  the 
utmost  in  my  power  to  change  the  destructive  man- 
ner of  dress  for  little  girls. 

Ligatures  obstruct  the  return  of  the  venous  blood 
to  the  heart  and  lungs,  which,  being  retained  in  the 
system,  causes  diseases  from  congestion  and  inflam- 
mation as  well  as  impurities  from  carbon.  Unless 
the  blood  can  be  freely  oxygenated  in  the  lungs,  it 
is  unfit  for  circulation,  and  gives  no  life  to  the  body. 
While  the  teeth  and  bony  structures  are  forming, 
the  blood  frequently  lacks  proper  nutriment,  which 
should  be  supplied  by  such  food  as  contains  ihe 
phosphates.  Wheaten  bran  contains  silex  and  phof» 


156  CABE   OP   CrllfJ>«ifl* 

phorus,  consequently  a  gr  del  made  of  i  e.s\<  / 1  rd  r. a< 
tliird  pure  milk,  taken  from  the  upper  third  after  if 
uas  stood  still  two  hours,  with  a  very  little,  if  any 
dugar,  will  be  a  good  diet ;  or,  if  the  child  has  the 
breast,  look  well  to  the  diet  and  condition  of  the 
mother  or  nurse. 

Children  should  enjoy  the  fresh  air  every  day  after 
they  are  strong  enough  to  be  carried  out,  and  the 
weather  is  fine. 

At  all  times  give  them  the  purest  air  to  breathe  ; 
do  not  cover  their  faces  while  sleeping ;  while 
draughts  or  currents  of  air  should  be  avoided,  a 
child's  face  should  not  be  covered.  At  first,  when 
the  hair  is  to  be  washed,  or  if  it  has  no  hair  on  its 
head,  it  will  be  well  to  shield  it  with  the  corner  of 
the  wrapping  blanket  or  a  soft  handkerchief  till  it 
dries.  I  am  not  an  advocate  of  bare  heads,  yet  caps 
are  not  good  on  account  of  their  closeness,  and  the 
starch  and  embroidery  with  strings  under  the  chin  are 
very  objectionable.  However,  they  must  be  worn,  or 
their  substitute,  while  in  the  open  air.  For  colic  01 
restlessness  give  chamomile  tincture,  two  or  three 
drops  in  a  third  of  a  goblet  of  water ;  stir  well,  and 
give  one  tea-spoonful  every  fifteen  minutes  till  re- 
lieved ;  hold  the  bowl  of  the  tea-spoon  in  a  warm 
hand  after  filling  it  for  a  few  seconds  till  the  chill 
is  taken  oft 

As  the  child  needs  nourishment  and  clothing  to 
e  its  life  and  growth,  so  does  it  need  the 


CARE    OF    CHILDREN.  157 

puro  nourishment  and  stimulus  of  good  air,  and  all 
the  sunshine  it  can  get.  Plants  grow  by  these ;  none 
the  less  do  our  household  plants ,  give  them  plenty 
of  room  and  chance  for  play  and  muscular  activity 
then. 

How  many  children  are  rendered  cripples  for  life 
and  become  victims  of  spinal  curvature  by  ignorant, 
silly  mothers  keeping  them  imprisoned  in  high  chairs 
in  babyhood,  lest  they  should  soil  their  beautiful 
baby-clothes  by  creeping  about  on  the  floor — the 
paradise  of  babydom  !  After  play,  in-doors  or  out, 
should  come  rest,  and  usually  every  child,  up  to  the 
age  of  six  years,  should  take  a  nap  or  lie  down  and 
rest  at  least  one  hour  before  dinner;  and  in  warm 
weather,  should  be  bathed  each  time  immediately 
after  waking,  care  being  taken  to  gently  rub  the 
spine  with  the  hand  or  soft  towel  to  strengthen  it 
after  the  bath. 

I  must  now  speak  of  the  effect  of  the  mental  emo- 
tions on  the  milk  of  the  nurse.  It  is  a  well-known 
fact  that  a  severe  fit  of  anger  will  cause  the  milk  to 
give  pain  to  the  babe.  All  sudden  shocks  and  un- 
pleasant emotions  should  be  carefully  avoided  by 
those  nursing  from  the  breast.  It  is  woman's 
crowning  glory  to  be  a  mother,  and  the  world 
should  so  regard  it.  To  quote  the  words  of  one, 
b  ersclf  a  mother,  whom  the  world  will  long  grate- 
fully remember  as  one  of  its  noblest  and  best  writers 
and  workers,  recently  deceased — Charlotte  I.  Lozier, 


158  CARE    OF   CHILDREN. 

M.D. :  "  If  woman  needs  to  be  versod  in  all  that 
literature  and  the  sciences  can  contribute  to  make 
her  an  author  or  a  teacher,  then  certainly  she  needs 
it  all  when  she  attempts  to  inscribe  the  untouched 
pages  of  an  unfolding  intellect,  and  teach  those  first 
'essons  in  all  sciences  or  truth  which  the  child's 
mind  probes  her  own  for  as  soon  as  it  can  ask  ques- 
tions." Then  the  health  of  the  mind  so  much  de- 
pends on  the  structure  and  health  of  the  body,  of 
which  so  much  depends  on  the  care  of  the  mother. 
It  is  said  by  good  physiologists  that  the  brains  of 
children  are  lender  like  soft  wax,  and  will  not 
usually  retain  impressions  till  they  are  about  seven 
years  old,  and  that  the  most  efficient  scholars  are 
those  who  have  not  been  taught  their  alphabet  till 
after  that  age.  I  am  certain  that  children  should 
not  be  forced  to  apply  the  memory  ;  still  it  may  and 
ought  to  be  gently  and  quietly  stored  with  useful 
facts.  Especially  should  the  child  be  taught  to 
know  truth  from  falsehood,  to  respect  the  rigLts  of 
others,  and  become  subject  to  the  laws  of  sympathy 
and  love.  As  the  sculptor  moulds  the  model  of  clay 
for  the  statue  by  wetting  it  to  soften  it,  so  love 
softens  and  moulds  the  developing  child. 

Quoting  again  words  from  the  pen  of  the  last- 
named  author:  "If  a  woman  needs  culture  and  ex- 
pansion, both  of  her  perceptions  and  conceptions  of 
the  beautiful,  in  order  to  produce  a  grand  poem  or 
painting  or  sculpture,  or  tc  conceive  noble  measures 


CARE    OF    CHILDREN.  159 

for  the  relief  of  the  suffering  of  others,  then  does 
she  also  need  all  these  for  that  highest  of  all  her 
efforts,  when  it  seems  as  if  every  fibre  of  her  being 
was  put  upon  the  stretch  to  do  its  share  in  the 
grand  donation — to  love  and  to  humanity — of  a 
child.' 


A  LIST 

0» 

BOOKS   ON   HEALTH   FOR   WOMEN. 


1.  Talks  to  My  Patients.     Mrs.  R.  B.  Gleason,  M.D.  .$1  51 
8.  Heiald   of  Health.      Monthly.     M.    L.   Holbrook, 
M.D.,  Editor.     $2  a  year. 

3.  Sexual  Physiology.     Trail 2  00 

4.  Parturition  without  Pain.     Edited  by  M.  L.  Hol- 

brook, M.D 1  00 

5.  The  Care  of  Children.    C.  S.  Lozier,  M.  D 2"» 

6.  The  Management  of  Infancy.     Combe 1  50 

7.  Notes  on  Nursery.     Miss  Nightingale 1  00 

8.  The  Teeth,  and  how  to  save  them.     Meredith 1  25 

9.  Why  not  ?    Storer 1  00 

10.  Insanity  in  Women.     Storer 1  50 

1 1.  The  Transmission  of  Life.     Naphy 2  00 

12.  Physical  Life  of  Woman.     Naphy 2  00 

13.  Human  Beauty.     Brinton  and  Naphy 2  00 

14.  Hereditary  Genius.     Galton 2  25 

15.  Our  Girls.     Dr.  Dio  Lewis 1  50 

16.  Dalton's  Physiology 1  50 

1 7.  Huxley's  Physiology 1  50 

18.  Dress  and  Care  of  the  Feet 1  50 

19.  Midwifery  and  Diseases  of  Women.     Shew 1  75 

20.  Management  of  Children.     Shew 1  75 

21.  Body  and  Mind.     Maudsley 1  75 

22.  Physical  Perfection.    Jaques 1  50 

23.  Uterine  Diseases.     Trail 3  00 

24.  The  Parents'  G  uide.     Pendleton 1  50 

25.  Hydropathic  Cook-Book.     Trail 1  50 

2(5.  Hygienic  Cook-Book 30 

27.  Advice  to  a  Wife  on  the  Management  of  her  own 

Health 1  25 

28.  Woman's  Home  Book  of  Health.     Wilson .....    .   1  2-1 

89    A  Treatise  on  the  Diseases  of  Female*.      W    P. 

Deweea.M.D .    .  8« 


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Parturition  vithout  pain. 


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